AN ARMY medic is returning home to Haverfordwest from Sierra Leone after spending months tackling the Ebola outbreak that has hit the country.

Private Charlene (Charlie) Bevilacqua, aged 25, has been working as a Health Care Assistant within a 12 bed Ebola Treatment Centre especially set up to deal with UK and International Health Care Workers who may have been infected with Ebola.

The centre at Kerry Town close to the Sierra Leone capital Freetown, provides assurance for those Health Care Workers working in other Ebola centres across the country; it also cares for local Sierra Leone Health Care Workers that may have contracted the disease.

Charlie’s task was to provide patient care within the treatment centre; she monitors and assesses patients that have been admitted to ensure that they receive the relevant treatment and care.

A tough job made much harder because on the ward she has to wear Personal Protective Equipment in the searing heat of Sierra Leone. Back in the UK, Charlie works at Ministry of Defence Hospital Unit (MDHU) Frimley Park.

She has been in the army for eight years, but this not her first time on a major operation, previously, she has deployed to Afghanistan, which was one of her most memorable experiences.

Her husband Lance Corporal Geneso Bevilacqua is also in the UK forces, working in the Military Provost Guard Service.

Charlie said, “I would like to thank everybody who sent me parcels and I love my husband and all of my family”.

Charlie enjoys sport representing the Army Medical Services at Cross Country and Hockey.

The UK military deployment to Sierra Leone continues and is part of a wider humanitarian aid program led by the Department for International Development and involving Non-Governmental Organisations supporting the Government of Sierra Leone and their Armed Forces.