THREE soldiers from the Bradford district have returned home from a seven-week tour in Sierra Leone as part of the British Army’s response to the Ebola outbreak in West Africa.

The trio are all members of 5 Medical Regiment, based at Catterick Garrison in North Yorkshire, who were deployed to establish the Ebola Training Academy in Freetown.

During their deployment, the squadron successfully trained more than 4,000 medical personnel, who will now work across the five treatment centres currently being built in Sierra Leone by the UK's Royal Engineers.

The mission was led by Lieutenant Colonel Phil Carter, 42, from Keighley, who said the drills taught during the medical training could make a "massive difference" in the worst-affected 'red zones'.

"I've obviously been deployed many times before, but this tour was focused on a specific outbreak of a disease, which was new to all of us," he said.

"Our job was to ensure enough staff were trained up to be ready as soon as the 700 treatment beds open, and we trained more than 4,000 personnel during the seven weeks, which can only have a major impact on tackling the outbreak.

READ BRADFORD PROFESSOR JOHN WRIGHT'S EBOLA EMERGENCY BLOG

"I am confident there are now sufficient healthcare workers available, and the training will continue via the International Organisation for Migration for at least another six months.

"In the short time we were there, you could see the significant progress being made."

The soldiers led the delivery of a series of three-day courses covering procedures to help stop the spread of the disease, which has claimed more than 7,000 lives in Africa since March, including 2,000 in Sierra Leone.

Courses took place at the Faculty of Nursing at the University of Sierra Leone and the country's national football stadium in Freetown, accessed by healthcare professionals such as doctors and nurses, alongside volunteer hygienists, prison officers, and police burial teams.

The seven-week stay was the first humanitarian aid mission for two Bradford members of the regiment - Corporal Darren Rendell, and Private Jessica Midgley - who both said they were unaware of what to expect leading up to the trip.

"The most difficult thing was heading into the unknown," said Cpl Rendell, 30, from Wrose.

"You see images on the news, but we were sheltered in that we weren't treating patients directly.

"Some of the people we were training were Ebola survivors who shared their first-hand experiences with us.

"I had never been involved with humanitarian aid, so it was a completely different experience."

Pte Midgley, 22, from Wibsey, said: "We weren't really sure what we were heading out to, but it was a really positive experience.

"You got to know your students across the three days, and some of them had lost a lot of family and friends to the virus, so hearing those stories was hard.

"The trainees responded really well, and were really keen to learn."

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