The last time Catherine Conteh saw the deeply familiar smile in front of her in Freetown, it was under dramatically different circumstances. Fresh off the plane from Australia on Sunday, Catherine arrived on the dock beside the Global Mercy where she was greeted by Aly Hogarth-Hall...
UK anaesthetists volunteer in transformational surgery A 43-year-old man who feared he would have to live with a tumour on his face for life was the first patient to receive life-changing surgery onboard the Global Mercy in Sierra Leone. Two UK anaesthetists were part of the global...
Around 65 volunteers from the UK and Ireland will be volunteering onboard the Global Mercy, which has now docked in freetown, Sierra Leone in response to an invitation from the country’s president, Julius Maada Bio. It is the sixth time Mercy Ships has partnered with the...
The critical need for surgical care in David Kpakiwa’s home country of Sierra Leone could not be more tangible to him. His knowledge is based on his own painful first-hand experience. “When I was a kid, my mum got sick and she needed surgery,” he said....
Around 100 years ago, Rachel Buckingham’s grandmother became a doctor at a time when some universities in the UK still barred women from qualifying as physicians. Little did Dr Muriel Griffiths from Cardiff, Wales, know that she would inspire her descendants as she headed off to...
The world’s largest charity hospital ship – the Global Mercy – has arrived in West Africa on 14th February and is preparing to deliver its first surgeries onboard. The newly built vessel from Mercy Ships will provide free, safe surgery and medical care to some...
Mercy Ships has a long-lasting history reaching back more than 20 years with the West African nation of Sierra Leone. Next year, the organisation will add an exciting next chapter to this story. Upon invitation by the government of Sierra Leone, Mercy Ships is pleased...
Dr Charlotte Polle-Kaliti is a pioneer. She was the first person from her community to go into medicine, becoming an obstetrician and gynaecologist, then a fistula surgeon. Out of 11 fistula surgeons in her home country of Kenya, she is the only woman. In the years...
Mercy Ships founder Don Stephens presented with prestigious award MEDICAL training has begun onboard the world’s largest civilian hospital ship – the Global Mercy – just days after the brand-new ship arrived in Senegal for its first African mission. Built by international aid charity Mercy Ships, the...
Missy Brown arrived at the CURE Hospital in Zambia ready to work. Instead, she found herself watching, waiting — and learning an unexpected lesson. Missy has volunteered with Mercy Ships for the past nine years, in the busy role of operating theatre manager onboard Africa Mercy....
Lewis Swann was 10 years old when he heard a message from a renowned evangelist. His young heart was greatly impacted, and he knew his life calling was to help people in Africa. Years later, he was living out this dream as a volunteer onboard...
“I used to say, ‘if you give someone fish to eat, you feed him for a day. If you teach him to fish, you feed him for his whole life. But if you teach people how to teach other people, then you feed a village...
“Togo is my country, but Mercy Ships is my home.” It was a conversation with her pastor, all the way back in 1995, that changed the trajectory of Clementine’s life. She was working at her church when she heard that a hospital ship would soon be...
How far can you imagine travelling to receive healthcare? For many of the patients you serve, access to care isn’t only limited by the cost, it’s also physically out of reach. Without trained medical specialists in their regions, small health issues can quickly grow into life-threatening...
Every morning, Francois Tounamou wakes up at 5.30am and spends more than two hours travelling to the Gamal Abdel Nasser University dental school in Guinea. He gets to the clinic early and leaves late, sometimes hours after the class is scheduled to end. In his...