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Nottingham Evening Post, 26th June 2006
A Blackpool nurse had to flee for her life after being
caught in war torn Sudan.
Evelyn Bird from Milford Avenue, North Shore, told
today of the horrors she faced when her team had to be evacuated
form the North East African country due to fighting.
After 4 am shooting started in the street, Evelyn
and her team were rushed out of the area by the United Nations.
One of her team died when their helicopter caught fire
“The only way the UN could get some staff out
of a certain area 15 kilometers away was to send in a helicopter.
It hit a tree on the way back and one of the girls couldn’t
get her seatbelt undone and she burned alive,” Evelyn said.
Her team had been holed up in a safe room for four hours while mortars
landed about 20m away,
Evelyn, who trained in nursing in Blackpool Victoria
Hospital, went out to Sudan in January to play a health and hygiene
role with international humanitarian agency GOAL. She said: “The
fighting was severe, prolonged and significant. It seemed like either
the military or the rebels were using the GOAL compound for cover
from bullets.
“Yes it was scary. We had time to run drills
and brief each other on what was going on. We had time to sort that
all out and get organised. It was traumatic, but I never felt in
serious danger. GOAL did their best to get us out of there –
it was an impressive evacuation operation.”
Now back in Blackpool Evelyn said she would go back
‘in a minute’ if needed
“I can’t say it’s not hard going because it is.
But it is quite rewarding giving something back when you see so
much injustice in the world at large. The National Health Service
is a wonderful thing but many countries don’t have anything
like that, so to go over to share your skills and knowledge is worthwhile.”
Before traveling to Sudan, Evelyn had also helped
out in the aftermath of the 2004 tsunami in Indonesia.
She was backpacking in Indonesia at the time of the
disaster and felt it was her duty to go and help out. She bought
a flight to the worst hit region of Banda Aceh.
Of the 7,000 residents of the small area she worked
in – Calang – only 1,000 survived.
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