Sadly, my Dad passed away a few months before I started my nursing training. On the days when everything gets too much and I want to run back home, I remember my Dad's face when I told him I had been accepted onto this degree and how happy he was for me that I was fulfilling my dream. Knowing how proud of me he was means everything to me. I hope he is proud of me now. I can still feel the presence of his love radiating through me and this is what gives me the strength and determination to become the best nurse I can be, and to spread as much happiness and love as I can through my life and my work.

Now it's time to fulfil another dream...

I am going on a 3-week elective placement to in Tanzania, in June 2018. I am likely to see cases of advanced HIV, which affects around 1.4 million people in Tanzania and will have the opportunity to help improve the lives and experiences of these patients. I will be based in a busy hospital where I will work as a student pediatric nurse in multiple areas from emergency cases, delivering babies, to treating children with HIV, AIDS, tropical diseases, and malnourishment. I will also spend time living in a remote African village, working in a clinic treating patients that may have travelled for days to be seen. I will also be carrying out a mass vaccination programme, HIV counselling and health promotion work, as well as spending time volunteering at a local orphanage to impart more love and many more cuddles! University encourages each student volunteer to try and raise sponsorship -I don't take asking for sponsorship lightly and will work as much as I can to help fund myself, but as a full-time student on a demanding degree, my time is necessarily limited. Donations go towards: the cost of the placement, well needed medical supplies for the hospitals such as gloves/masks/ sanitizer/ blood pressure monitors, presents for children and towards HIV/ AIDS projects.

Please know that any smile I bring to a child’s face, any laughter I can share, any healing I can provide, will be thanks to you for helping me get there.

Thank you SO much!

Ebony Jane x