Two Brighton and Hove companies deserve an award for service above the call of duty in helping to get a much-needed computer battery to a medical outpost in Albania.

The battery was needed to allow medical missionary, Angela McCann, to stay in touch with base and deliver essential health information to Albanian families.

She uses a laptop for almost every part of her teaching work so, when her battery failed, it spelled disaster for her project.

Angela had purchased a used IBM laptop computer from The Laptop Shop in Queen's Road, Brighton, earlier this year. Her budget was small, but the extremely-helpful staff found exactly what she wanted and made sure it was in working order before she left for Albania.

At the time, nobody anticipated just how much use that machine was going to get. Nine months later, the elderly battery expired.

Albania is not famous for technology. There is one computer shop in the capital city, Tirana, which is usually out of stock of virtually everything. So Angela sent me an email asking for help.

Armed with the computer's serial number, I contacted the Laptop Shop and asked for their advice as I had discovered the IBM computer in question was fitted with a number of different batteries depending upon age and batch number.

They suggested I asked Angela to email some digital photographs of her old battery to help the search.

The images duly arrived. I forwarded them to the Laptop Shop and, less than a day later, I was told that the correct battery was awaiting collection in the shop.

Fantastic service, I am sure you would agree. But the saga does not end there.

I now had to get the battery to Albania.

Albania is a wild place. Bandits control many main roads after dark and the government is struggling to combat corruption.

Postal services are rather less than reliable. The only solution was to find a personal courier to carry the battery into Albania and deliver it by hand to Angela.

Two text messages later I tracked down another missionary, leaving for Albania in 24 hours, prepared to carry the precious package. He was based in a remote village in North Wales.

North Wales is a lot like Albania. Beautiful mountains, dark forests, remote villages and so far away most people do not go there very often.

Having used their delivery services before, I grabbed my mobile phone and called Swift Response, in Portland Road, Hove, and asked for suggestions.

I was told they would deliver the battery to the courier in North Wales the following day if I could get it to them reasonably quickly.

I made a mad dash through the streets of Brighton and Hove but the time was well after 6pm before I pulled up outside their offices.

I thanked the staff profusely for waiting for me, handed the battery over and watched as it was sealed in a plastic transport bag and left with the other packages awaiting a van.

The next morning, I was woken by a call from the missionary courier in North Wales telling me that the Swift Response delivery man had driven through the night, got him out of bed and the battery had arrived safely. He promised to put it in Angela's hand as soon as he could.

Today, I had an email from Angela in Albania telling me that the new battery was installed. Something of a result in less than 48 hours, don't you think?

The Laptop Shop is on 01273 220044 and Swift Response on 01273 700240.