Tanya in Uganda – Pre-trip nerves and excitement!

Perfection Plus’ very own Finance Director, Tanya Richards is about to embark on the adventure of a lifetime by joining our official charity Partner SmileStar’s latest outreach programme to Uganda.

SmileStar provide high quality dental care to underprivileged communities across Africa and Asia as well as ex-service personnel in the UK and Perfection Plus have supported their incredible outreach programmes for several years, including donating materials, instruments and much more.

Joined by multiple volunteers every trip, all of whom give up their time, knowledge and experience both clinical and non-clinical. Many of these volunteers return year after year, after having such a wonderful, meaningful experience.

So, how is Tanya feeling ahead of her trip? “Excited, nervous and curious probably best sums up how I feel about spending 2 weeks in Uganda!”

Earlier in 2026, Perfection Plus sponsored a campaign to send one lucky dental nurse to Zimbabwe, and after seeing the amazing job that our winner Georgiana Vlad did and the enthusiasm she had on her return, Tanya decided that she wanted to get involved herself.

“Georgiana had the most rewarding trip and I believe plans to go again next year. Having seen how it’s set up to that everyone gives their time and in return SmileStar tries their best to give you an incredible experience, it really is a win-win for everyone involved”.

Founded in 2010, SmileStar have run multiple outreach programmes every year since across Africa, India and in the UK too, so as you’d expect, it’s become a very slick operation with Tanya saying that, “the team on the WhatsApp group have been brilliant with advice and asking any questions that we had. Luckily, quite a lot of the group going have been before and are taking it in their stride which gives me confidence.”

After spending more than 15 years working with Perfection Plus and gaining an insight into how the modern dental practice operates from afar in her role as Finance Director, Tanya added, “It will be so interesting to see how the clinics are set up without all the modern conveniences that we’ve become so used to in day-to-day working life, such as the administration and logistics involved treating so many people in one day.

As someone who has never worked in a dental practice, it would probably be fair to say that Tanya is equal parts nervous and excited for the trip, “I am so scared that I will let the team down, and have no idea what is expected of me but I am desperate to pull my weight and get involved, as the team offer treatment to those in areas with no access to basic dental care.”

One of the reasons Tanya was so personally keen to get involved with this SmileStar programme was to push herself out of her comfort zone, “Having never been to Africa before I expect to be outside my comfort zone some of the time, but I am sure the once in a lifetime chance to visit the Batwa Tribe and, potentially see Mountain Gorillas and Chimpanzees in the National Parks more than makes up for it. Packing for the unknown is always a challenge but this time with the complications of the complete unexpected and heat. I have hit the internet hard to build a safari outfit!”

All the team at Perfection Plus wish Tanya the very best luck and are incredibly proud of her for challenging herself and supporting such a worthwhile cause.

Make sure to follow @smilestarcharity on Instagram and visit www.smilestarcharity.com to learn more about the incredible work they are doing and to donate to support their outreach programmes.

Also follow Perfection Plus on Instagram (@perfectionplusltd) to follow Tanya’s progress and see loads of content and pictures from her amazing trip to Uganda.