Scots Ebola nurse on '˜subcrawl' before trip to Sierra Leone

A Scottish nurse who contracted the Ebola virus while working overseas is to return to the country where she caught the deadly disease.

Pauline Cafferkey is due to return to Sierra Leone next week.

Pauline Cafferkey will next week head back to Sierra Leone week to raise money for the Street Child charity, according to The Daily Record.

The Cambuslang-based nurse became the first British person to be infected by Ebola in December 2014.

Since then she has faced several relapses.

To generate donations, the nurse took part in a Glasgow “subcrawl” in which she and 14 friends visited pubs close to the city’s subway stations.

Ms Cafferkey said: “It was really good fun and went really well.

“That was my first time doing the subcrawl. We never managed a drink in every pub, mainly because we had a few in the first, but we did make it all the way around.

“We were all dressed as old women. My sister was especially noticeable because she was dressed as [TV character] Mrs Brown.

“We raised a couple of hundred pounds from the people in the pubs and those with us donated about that much as well.”

Ms Cafferkey will jet out to Sierra Leone next week to participate in Street Child’s annual fundraising marathon with two friends.

She was treating those suffering from Ebola in 2014 when she caught the disease.

The 41-year-old said she was excited to be returning. “I am looking forward to it,” she said. “People keep asking if I am worried about catching Ebola again but, if anything, I don’t have a chance of catching it because I will be immune.

“Sierra Leone is one of the poorest countries in the world. It suffered from civil war for a long time and had just started to recover when Ebola struck.

“The people are nice but they have had such a horrible time. I’ll be going back this time at a different stage for the country.”

Street Child is a UK charity, established in 2008, that aims to create educational opportunity for some of the world’s most vulnerable children.

Ms Cafferkey said: “Right now they are doing a campaign to get 500 teenage mothers into educations.

“There are so many teenage pregnancies there because young women are forced to have sex for food or money.

“They have also identified 1,400 Ebola orphans to help. A lot of the times it is younger members of the family who need to head the household because they have lost their parents. They drop out of school to look after their siblings.

“While we are there we will be able to see some of the work they are doing.”

Pauline’s whole trip is being self-funded which means any money she raises will go to Street Child.