Doctor who risked all in fight against Ebola visits old friends in Leamington

Jane Knight (vice Chair of OWL) seeing the Gullys and their family setting off on the next stage of their journey passing through Farley St. where they lived long ago&.

Dr Paul Gully, who brought up his family in Farley Street, volunteered to go into the epicentre of the Ebola crisis as a field coordinator for the World Health Organisation at Sierra Leone’s capital city Freetown in October.

He has been reporting back to friends and members of One World Link (OWL), the organisation he and others including his wife Lois founded in the early 1980s which provides an aid link between the town of Bo in Sierra Leone and the Warwick district.

While on their short stay in Leamington, Dr and Mrs Gully met current members of OWL and filled them in about his experiences while in Freetown and the Ebola-hit areas.

The Gullys are now living in Vancouver in Canada, but Dr Gully is keeping a watching brief on post Ebola developments in Sierra Leone and will maintain contact OWL members.

Jane Knight, vice chairman of OWL, said: “It was a happy reunion for them and my family as we have been friends since they lived in Leamington 35 years ago.

“Paul and Lois were surprised and delighted to learn of how One World Link has grown since they saw it in its infancy, and how the school and local council links have made such a difference in perceptions and quality of life in the Bo and Warwick districts.”

An appeal for donations made by One World Link raised more than £3,500, which will be used by people in Bo to help the disease from returning and spreading again.

Some 16 schools in Bo and Warwick district are linked through OWL with teachers having travelled to Sierra Leone during safer times.