The full horror of the Asian tsunami will live forever with one Crook man who spent five days as a volunteer in Thailand helping to identify dead bodies, reports Luke Dicicco.

Oliver Maurice, chairman of the Lake District Tourism and Conservation Partnership, arrived back in the UK almost two weeks ago after extending his stay in Asia and returning to Phuket to help in the massive and gruelling clean-up operation following the devastating tsunami on Boxing Day.

The 60 year old worked in soaring temperatures of 30 to 40 degrees helping to ascertain whether dead bodies, many discovered three weeks earlier and kept in chilled containers, were of Thai or foreign origin.

Now the former North West regional director for the National Trust has returned to the Lake District to urge more volunteers to come forward, call for patience from countries across the globe over the repatriation of bodies and encourage people not to cancel trips to the area to prevent a "second catastrophe" the collapse of the country's essential tourist industry.

"It was grizzly and painstakingly slow but the job had to be done," Mr Maurice told the Gazette.

"I think patience is going to have to be a virtue for the countries awaiting repatriation of bodies because, in some cases, it was difficult enough ascertaining gender let alone ethnic origin.

"With the best will in the world it's not straight forward. People don't understand what's going on."

Mr Maurice had been holidaying in Patong with his wife Debbie and daughter Emily but moved north to Chaing Mia just days before the tsunami struck.

Standing at Bangkok airport waiting to fly back to England, Mr Maurice made the decision to return to Thailand, offering his services to the Ministry of Affairs, who sent him to Takua Pa, near the town of Khao Lak, the area of Thailand most devastated by the tsunami.

"I don't know what came over me, I just knew I could not go home without doing something to help," he said.

"After a while it made me think how lucky we had been to miss the tsunami, but so many people had not."

Mr Maurice worked for three of his five days at the Wat Yan Yao temple, helping to identify some of the 3,500 dead bodies stored there.

During one day Mr Maurice and his team identified the origin of 60 bodies by observing facial features, clothing tags and tattoos a laborious process that highlighted the huge task being undertaken.

He also spent part of his time scouring the town of Khao Lak for dead bodies that remained undiscovered a task he said that had thankfully proved fruitless although a passport and luggage tags had been found.

Mr Maurice said he was disturbed at the impatience of foreign countries over the repatriation of bodies, highlighted recently when Foreign Secretary Jack Straw criticised the speed of the operation.

He also urged volunteers to come forward and help the effort, saying there was a desperate need for people to help rebuild devastated areas.

"I have great sympathy for everybody working there, because the conditions are so extreme, but they need help," he said.

Anyone interested in learning more about becoming a volunteer can contact Mr Maurice via the Gazette by emailing luke.dicicco@kendal.newsquest.co.uk