Concord, New Hampshire, USA -- A 78-year-old former teacher from Ghana will be undergoing hip surgery next week, thanks to the Capital City Rotary Club, which bought the man a plane ticket to the United States and found a Concord doctor willing to do the surgery for free.

Emmanuel Thompson will have surgery next week to replace his left hip and may undergo knee surgery as well. Thompson is a family friend of St. Paul's School chaplain John Thompson-Quartey, who emigrated from Ghana in 1983.

The rotary club heard about Thompson two years ago through Thompson-Quartey and decided to help out to boost the club's commitment to international community service. Thompson originally hurt his right knee exercising, and then his hip gave out. When Thompson-Quartey visited Ghana three years ago, his lifelong friend was unable to get out of bed.

"We get to do a lot of things locally, through donating to the soup kitchen and things like that, but we don't have too many chances as a local club to do things internationally," said Thompson. "We thought we found something we could put together."

Dr. Mark Scheffer will be donating his time performing the hip replacement surgery, and Horseshoe Pond Physical Therapy has agreed to donate physical therapy time. The Visiting Nurse Association is also giving Thompson home-care therapy for free.