GIRRAWHEEN teenager Tina Conteh (18) said it was thanks to Mercy Ships that she and her mother were alive today and that was why she wanted to “give something back”.
Tina recently finished six weeks of voluntary service aboard the world’s largest charity hospital ship, Africa Mercy, docked in her country of birth, Sierra Leone.
After graduating from school at the end of 2011, she offered to serve as a dining room steward on the ship, which has six operating theatres, an 80-bed hospital and a crew of more than 400 volunteers from around the world.
Tina’s desire to go on a ship sailing to a poor West African nation, washing dishes and chopping vegetables, was a way for her to give back to those who saved her life.
When Tina’s mum Catherine went in to premature labour with her, the family had no money to pay for the Caesarean section she required. Keith Thomson, a doctor on board a Mercy Ships hospital ship, decided to pay the fee for the Caesarean section that ultimately saved the lives of both Tina and Catherine.
Dr Thomson then helped the family flee from war-troubled Sierra Leone to Guinea as refugees, then Ghana in 2000 and Wollongong in 2005.
When Dr Thomson visited the family three years ago, Tina said she wanted to become a gynaecologist.
“People have told me I am a miracle and I had never really thought of it until recently,” she said.
“I believe my mum’s life was saved for a reason and I want to help women like her to have children.
“I believe God saved my life for a purpose and when I was younger that purpose was not really clear but now, after serving my time as a volunteer on the Africa Mercy, I see that purpose more clearly, and that is to serve others.
“Being on the ship and being surrounded by such wonderful people I have come to learn to appreciate things a lot more than I used to.
“I now know definitely that I want to go back to work on the ship after I qualify as a registered nurse.”