My legs have just about recovered but I’m still on a
complete high from running the London Marathon on the weekend. I was fully
prepared with all these little psychological tips to get me through the pain
and to spur me on when I ‘hit the wall’ but I didn’t need them. In between
spotting my amazing entourage of friends and family around the course, thoughts
of King’s Sierra Leone Partnership, Idrissa and my two team mates – Amelia and
Brendan (who ran all the way in his PPE, what a legend!) up ahead, certainly
kept the “fire burning”. I feel like my cheek muscles had just as much exercise
as my legs from all the smiling! Various people had said that the crowds would
be a huge help and that couldn’t have been more true. I felt tears prickling my
eyes as I crossed Tower Bridge simply knowing that all these thousands of
spectators were supporting individuals like me with similarly personal and important
causes, just like mine. So a massive thank you to everyone who came to cheer
and an even bigger thank you to everyone who kindly and generously donated to
King’s.
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| At 10km when I took off the PPE. Brendan wore it ALL the way. Legend! |
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| All smiles... Brendan, Amelia and I, together we have raised £17,279.38 (incl. Gift Aid) for KSLP. |
Sadly my time with
King’s has come to an end, for now at least. I’d love to be able to move on
knowing that we are safely post-Ebola but unfortunately that elusive status
still seems quite a distance away. It’s amazing how out-of-the-loop I feel not
living, breathing and working every moment in the office where at least someone
is talking about Ebola every day. There were 6 positive cases of Ebola in
Freetown last week, ending 22nd April. Despite the huge increase in
numbers of epidemiologists tracing every contact of a positive case, still more
than half the new cases in the week ending 15th April came from
unknown transmission routes. The ongoing vigilance of all the healthcare
workers and the country as a whole is so important, but has got to be fairly tiresome.
Yet there are little signs of hope, as my neighbour from Freetown sent me a
picture of her son in his school uniform on whatsapp, proudly going to school
for the first time in 9 months. Her words ‘really sister, I am so happy for
that’ emphasise the impact this deadly virus has had on all aspects of daily
life.
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| Leaving Party for Paddy, Aatish & myself in my house in Freetown with all the Isolation Staff from Connaught |
I can’t thank the other
volunteers in Freetown and the London office enough for all the support,
friendship, career advice, cooking tips, media training… what an amazing few
months! I have had a brief insight into knowing how intense it can be working
in an environment where you can see how much there is to do but can only make
progress one step at a time. I have the utmost respect for the volunteers and
staff who have the dedication to stay and help, especially now so many health
system strengthening projects are up and running (A&E, Mental Health &
Infectious Diseases, not to mention the IPC programme!). If you know anyone who would like to join the team, King’s are currently recruiting for a number of
positions including Country Director and Senior Nurse. I also feel completely humbled by the dedication of the local staff who work
tirelessly day in, day out without the easy option of leaving when they feel
like they’ve had enough. Their commitment to working in the unit, not getting
despondent and seeing the end of Ebola is inspiring. All in all, I’ve met some incredible
people that I hope to stay in touch with and visit again in the not too distant
future.
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| Idrissa and I at my leaving party |
Finally, the last
word of my blog for now, is saved for Idrissa, whose words of ‘you are strong,
Claire’ followed me round the roads of London on Sunday. Amelia, who also
trained with him last summer, and I rang him from the post-race reception and
he simply squealed down the phone with excitement. This was how he must have
felt after completing the London Marathon himself last year. Thankfully, he
does have something to train towards now. Tom Boyles, the South African doctor
that trained me in using PPE when I first arrived in Freetown, has set up an
initiative to raise funds for Idrissa to train in Kenya in preparation for
running the Cape Town Marathon in September. Hurray! I will circulate the link
to the fundraising website when it is launched shortly.
Thank you to you
all for reading my blog. I have had some very kind words of appreciation over
the last few months. I’m not going to lie, I have not found it easy to keep it
up to date but I have appreciated the opportunity to reflect and share some of
my experiences. I don’t know yet whether I will continue to blog from England
or not yet, maybe it will be the next time I am overseas… we shall see :)
