Family move to Sierra Leone to volunteer for a year

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.

He was granted a year's unpaid leave from Associated British Ports in Southampton to work with the international healthcare charity Mercy Ships.

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.

The family left Salisbury in July 2024, and Mr Lawrence captained the ship while medics carried out 1,600 surgeries.

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.

"So when we heard that Mercy Ships were looking for qualified mariners to volunteer on board their ships we signed up."

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.

The Global Mercy is thought to be the world's largest purpose-built non-governmental hospital ship.

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.

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.

In the past year the medical team on the ship have undertaken more than 1,600 surgeries for 1,500 different patients.

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."

It is almost time to come home but has been an experience he and his family will never forget.

"Sierra Leone is a wonderful country," he said. "The people are incredibly warm-hearted and welcoming."

"Everywhere we've gone, we've been met with with smiles with greetings and welcomes.

"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.

"So it will be a year that will live with us for the rest of our lives, I'm sure."

You can follow BBC Hampshire & Isle of Wight on Facebook, X, or Instagram.