I have no desire to go back home

Valerie Eusebio's first few weeks in Britain were a bewildering experience but she soon settled into her job as a staff nurse.

Now, three years after leaving the Philippines, she has no intention of returning.

Many foreign nurses recruited to work here struggle to adapt and quickly return home.

But Ms Eusebio had help from her bosses and from some of the hundreds of Filipinos working in the NHS.

She now earns about £17,000, many times what she could have made at home.

The 28-year-old had already worked in a hospital in Kent but when she moved to the National Hospital for Neurology in Bloomsbury, University College Hospital found her accommodation and a fellow Filipino nurse to show her the ropes.

She said: "For the first few weeks after I came to Britain I missed home. It was difficult settling in.

"But when I came to London it was much easier because of UCH's programme and the way they look after new nurses. I'm much more settled now."