{"id":179535,"date":"2025-06-12T22:53:19","date_gmt":"2025-06-12T22:53:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/179535\/"},"modified":"2025-06-12T22:53:19","modified_gmt":"2025-06-12T22:53:19","slug":"family-move-to-sierra-leone-to-volunteer-on-hospital-ship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/179535\/","title":{"rendered":"Family move to Sierra Leone to volunteer on hospital ship"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"MercyMercy Ships<\/p>\n

Ian Lawrence and his family boarded the Global Mercy to spend 10 months volunteering in Sierra Leone<\/p>\n

For the past year, marine pilot Ian Lawrence and his family of four have been volunteering on a hospital ship off the coast of Sierra Leone.<\/p>\n

He was granted a year’s unpaid leave from Associated British Ports in Southampton to work with the international healthcare charity Mercy Ships. <\/p>\n

Mr Lawrence’s two children – eight-year-old Abigail and five-year-old Piran – went to school on the ship and his wife, Elizma, paused her business back home.<\/p>\n

The family left Salisbury in July 2024, and Mr Lawrence captained the ship while medics carried out 1,600 surgeries.<\/p>\n

\"MercyMercy Ships<\/p>\n

The Global Mercy ship has helped more than 1,500 patients in the past 12 months<\/p>\n

Mr Lawrence said: “I’ve spent 15 years at sea and became a ship’s captain and then came ashore to work as a marine pilot. I met my wife on board a cruise ship so we’re very much a maritime family. <\/p>\n

“So when we heard that Mercy Ships were looking for qualified mariners to volunteer on board their ships we signed up.”<\/p>\n

The family have their own little cabin on the ship, and the two children attend the ship’s academy, which teaches children from the age of four to 18. <\/p>\n

The Global Mercy is thought to be the world’s largest purpose-built non-governmental hospital ship.<\/p>\n

\"MercyMercy Ships<\/p>\n

Mr Lawrence said that in Sierra Leone “there is a lot of facial tumours, cleft palates, bowed legs”<\/p>\n

At 174m (571ft) long and a gross tonnage of 37,000, the ship features six operating rooms, a hospital deck with 200 beds, a laboratory and various clinics including general outpatient, eye, and dental.<\/p>\n

The charity said the Global Mercy also had first-class training facilities for local medical professionals and is home to up to 600 volunteers who serve on board.<\/p>\n

In the past year the medical team on the ship have undertaken more than 1,600 surgeries for 1,500 different patients. <\/p>\n

Mr Lawrence said: “In Sierra Leone there is a lot of facial tumours, cleft palates, bowed legs and also things such as burns, where the skin has contracted and caused the lack of mobility in someone’s limbs.”<\/p>\n

\"MercyMercy Ships<\/p>\n

Mr Lawrence’s children Piran and Abigail were excited for their first day of school on board the ship<\/p>\n

It is almost time to come home but has been an experience he and his family will never forget. <\/p>\n

“Sierra Leone is a wonderful country,” he said. “The people are incredibly warm-hearted and welcoming.”<\/p>\n

“Everywhere we’ve gone, we’ve been met with with smiles with greetings and welcomes.<\/p>\n

“It’s been an intense year, one where we’ve had highs and lows, but we really feel like we’ve lived and we have contributed, we’ve made a real difference to their part of the world and a population that really needed it.<\/p>\n

“So it will be a year that will live with us for the rest of our lives, I’m sure.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mercy Ships Ian Lawrence and his family boarded the Global Mercy to spend 10 months volunteering in Sierra…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":179536,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4316],"tags":[105,4348,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-179535","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-healthcare","8":"tag-health","9":"tag-healthcare","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114672855503781556","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179535","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=179535"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179535\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/179536"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=179535"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=179535"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=179535"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}