Shropshire nurse flying out to join Ebola fight in Sierra Leone

Lieutenant Colonel Maggie Durrant, a senior nurse at the Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic Hospital in Gobowen, near Oswestry, is attached to the 208 (Liverpool) Field Hospital in Pentre, north Wales.

She will be shipping out to Sierra Leone next week to spend three months helping to run a medical facility especially for the treatment of Ebola patients.

As she will be away over Christmas, Lt Col Durrant, 53, held her celebrations with her husband, 17-year-old son, 14-year-old daughter and their extended family before starting her training three weeks ago.

"I've deployed twice before so they're not too fazed. They're very supportive as long as I can keep in touch," she said.

"I had the opportunity to have an early Christmas and the family all came for a very big Christmas dinner so we've done it early. The family will still have Christmas on December 25 when I'm away as well.

"I've been away for three weeks so far, so it will have been four weeks by the time I'm on a plane to Sierra Leone, then I'll be working there for a couple of months. It will be some time in early March when I finish."

Despite the training, she admitted she is feeling nervous about the deployment.

Ebola has killed 6,346 people in West Africa, with more than 17,800 infected. Those deaths include 1,742 in Sierra Leone.

"I think I'd be wrong if I said I wasn't nervous," Lt Col Durrant said.

"That nervousness is making sure I'm keeping attentive to everything that's going on and all the training that we're getting.

"I'm more excited than nervous, but part of my job will be making sure everyone who goes out there stays safe.

"Normally as a nurse or doctor you put the patients first in everything. One of the things we have to do here is to make sure the staff come first all the time.

"Everything has to be done in a much more meticulous way, a slower way, and to make sure that doesn't get forgotten when people get tired or stressed."

Lt Col Durrant was chosen for the deployment after the Army asked for reservists with the necessary skills to submit their CVs.

"It was a good career move so I was more than happy," she said.

"I've been deployed twice before, to Iraq and Afghanistan, and the hospital has been very supportive in letting me go again."