An Oxford student who survived the South East Asia tsunami disaster is starting a new life on the Thai island where she almost died.

Naomi Bowman

Six months on from the disaster, which claimed 225,000 lives and left hundreds of thousands more injured and homeless, Naomi Bowman, 21, has decided the best way to help the people struggling to rebuild their lives on Koh Phi Phi is to move out there and give hands-on help.

The maths scholar, who finished her degree at Pembroke College last week, has been eager to visit the island ever since the disaster, but because of her injuries, doctors told her to rest. She needed six operations after being swept from the beach and hit by debris.

Despite being in pain and struggling to concentrate on her studies, she threw herself into fundraising work and has raised almost £6,000, some of which she will deliver direct to the people who need it most when she arrives on the island on Monday.

She said: "I always wanted to go back to the island and this has given me a purpose. I am apprehensive about revisiting the place where it all happened but I think it will help. It will also be brilliant to see the money working.

"People don't just need the money, but it does help. The Thai government has not given much help to its people, some of whom have lost absolutely everything.

"The clear-up work has obviously been under way for months, it has been a long struggle, but from what I have heard the Thai people do seem to be moving on. They do not talk about it a lot but are spirited and energetic."

Naomi met her boyfriend, islander Pratheep Janthamanee, just days before the tsunami and despite problems with visas, they have kept in touch and stayed together. "Theep and everyone on the island are so grateful for the help and support people have given -- whether it was donating a few pence to a charity bucket in Oxford or flying out to volunteer in the aftermath of the disaster," she said.

Ms Bowman hopes to work for the Hi Phi Phi Foundation, a charity set up on the island after the tsunami, or as an English teacher.

About £4,000 of the cash she raised in Oxford has already been distributed and she intends to spread the rest between a children's charity and 20 people who lost their homes and businesses in the disaster.

Another Oxford resident who has given hands-on help to those in tsunami-hit areas is hospital physician Bhathiya Wijeyekoon.

Less than a month after the tsunami struck, he was Sri Lanka-bound, armed with money raised on Oxford's streets and as many resources as his luggage allowance could hold.

Dr Wijeyekoon, 33, who lives in Headington, returned to his native Sri Lanka to see what help was needed and buy as many items as he could with the £3,000 the Thrangu House Buddhist Centre in east Oxford, which he was working with, had raised.

Although his family was safe, some of his old friends were injured or killed.