Coming home

BA flight 060 has left Nairobi and I’m once again in the African skies. But this time I am not in my own private jet and I will not be retrieving some unfortunate soul from the depths of the continent. My time with AMREF Flying Doctors has come to an end and I will soon be back on home soil in Heathrow. The time has streamed by in steady flow of little adventures that, no sooner had I started to reflect on one, I was whisked off on another. 

It was not all that long ago I was in a similar aircraft approaching Nairobi and, to be blunt, utterly bricking myself. Since then I relaxed into my role and was embraced into the AFD family. The variety and frequency of the strange situations flash through my mind like someone rapidly flicking through a comic book. It’s so difficult to pick them out from each other. I’m now so glad I started writing the blog so I can revive the memories for years to

come. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed writing the stories and I’m really chuffed so many of you have enjoyed reading them. To date over 7000 people have read these posts and I find it hard to believe my mother was responsible for all of them! I would love to continue writing them but life as an emergency physician in St Mary’s hospital is less conducive to attention grabbing headlines. ‘Woman gets offended when told her sore throat is not an emergency’ is just not as exciting as ‘Buffalo attack wake up call’.

The guys were able to summarise the work which I have done over the last three months and it has surprised even me: -

• Countries visited – Iraq, UAE, Sudan, South Sudan, Ethiopia, Djibouti, Somalia, DRCongo, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Tanzania, Chad, Zanzibar, Madagascar, South Africa and all over Kenya.
• 73,000 miles flown, which is nearly three times around the world.
• My work as a volunteer has provided over $33,000 USD which has been saved by the charity.

It has been an exceptional time, providing me with some of the most heartwarming, bizarre, frustrating, terrifying and challenging medical experiences of my life. I’ve learnt a huge amount as a clinician. I’ve learnt about teamwork and timework, suffering and salvation, injustice and incompetence, African cultures and corruption. I’ve been so privileged to be involved in some of these stories and would urge any of you, who have the appropriate skills, to seriously think about taking this job on. I would imagine this is my last post for AMREF Flying Doctors and thanks again for following the blog. It’s been emotional.