Emergency Nurse returning to Kos to deliver vital aid to refugees

Carrie Davies, 55, described her two-weeks in Kos as “heart-breaking” but says she has no choice but to return to the island where thousands of refugees have arrived after crossing from neighbouring Turkey in small boats.

“I have left my heart behind,” said the mother-of-three from Llanymynech, between Oswestry and Welshpool.

The majority of refugees in Kos are fleeing conflict in Syria, Iraq or Afghanistan and many are sleeping on the streets, in tents or abandoned buildings.

Carrie, who has taken time off work in order to travel a second time on Saturday, has told of the harrowing conditions migrants face after reaching dry land.

“I saw terrible suffering as everyday people made the highly dangerous journey across from Turkey in small dinghies. Sometimes they would make it alive but many times they didn’t,” she said.

“The two weeks were a real rollercoaster of emotion and sadness. There was a feeling of happiness when we fed so many starving people, yet I also saw and heard the stuff of nightmares. Every day we would feed as many refugees as possible, but it's never enough and there is always a family that goes hungry.

“The refugees are just like you and I - lovely and caring people – and I just hope and pray they will be treated well on their onward journey; sadly somehow I don’t think this will always happen. Every day there is another hungry mouth, another soaked and crying baby. This will carry on as long as we let it.

“I cannot help feeling these people are being forgotten about and therefore I cannot simply go back to my cosy life while suffering carries on throughout Europe.”

Carrie has set up her own Go Fund Me account ahead of the trip with the aim of raising £10,000 to buy food, clothing, tents, medical aids and medicines.

She continued: “I have so far raised more than £1,000 and that means almost 2,000 meals as we can feed people a really nutritious meal for as little as 60 pence each.

“Not a penny of what I raise will be wasted. I have seen heart-breaking, terrible suffering and I will keep on helping until I can help no more.”

The Stores Department at the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital donated a number of obsolete items to Carrie for her to take with her on her first trip and she will be taking more of these items across with her when she leaves at the weekend.

Nina Williams, of the Stores Department, said: “What Carrie is doing is fantastic. We have all followed the crisis and wanted to do what we could to help.

“The items we can provide are the kind of items money can’t buy. Offering kindness really is what this Trust does best.”

Carrie’s determination to help the refugees was ignited after she saw the image of a policeman holding the body of a lifeless three-year-old on a beach splashed across front pages of many national newspapers.

Mrs Davies, who has worked at the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital since 1995, added: “Watching the news and seeing that image, seeing the state some of the people are in when coming off the dinghies made me sit up and think ‘I can’t stand back and do nothing any longer’. I have the time and the skills to help, so that is exactly what I am doing.

To find out more about Carrie’s trip, or to donate to her fund visit https://www.gofundme.com/mh7gj5ak