News and stories from the Mercy Ships community
Isolation to confidence
Inside: Discover how Joseph’s life was transformed in just one surgery
Plus: Your generosity in action. See for yourself the difference your gifts made in 2025
What we do
Mercy Ships brings love and expert care to women, men, and children who need medical help.
Safe surgery is out of reach for nine out of ten people in sub-Saharan Africa. People are robbed of years of healthy life, for conditions that are easily treatable. This is unjust.
With your help, we can change this. You can be part of providing free, life-changing surgeries on our hospital ships.
You can provide training for medical professionals and help to rebuild health clinics. Together, we can transform lives for decades to come.
Hope. Healing. Transforming lives.
mercyships.org.uk 01438 727800 info@mercyships.org.uk
Dear Mercy Ships supporter,
Spring has a way of reminding us that new beginnings are always possible. It’s the time of year that makes me want to slow down and reflect on what has happened in the last few months and say thank you. Properly. From the heart.
As the Christian summer events season gets underway across the UK, I’m genuinely excited about the many opportunities to meet our supporters, volunteers and alumni. If you’re going to any of these summer events, see events details on page 11, please stop by our Mercy Ships stand to say hello. I’m planning to be at as many as I possibly can, and I would love to meet you and thank you in person.
As we put together this magazine, I found myself reflecting over two stories. Joseph, who walked alone for 12 hours to reach our hospital ship. And Tina, who was born with a clubfoot and couldn’t walk any distance at all. Both their lives have been changed through free surgery made possible by the generosity and kindness of supporters like you. Once again, thank you for all you do for Mercy Ships and those we serve.
The courage of Joseph and Tina has been an inspiration to me. It’s why I’ve decided to do the Thames Bridges Trek Challenge on Saturday, 12th September, and I’d love for you to consider joining me. If we can walk together and raise funds for Mercy Ships, we can keep writing new stories of hope and healing for more patients like Joseph and Tina. Sign up to join me at mercyships.org.uk/trek
Life-changing surgery is often what people think of first when they hear about Mercy Ships and rightly so. But your generosity is also building something that will last long after our hospital ships have sailed away.
Dr Rachel Buckingham, an orthopaedic surgeon from the UK, said it beautifully: our goal is ultimately to do ourselves out of work. By training local healthcare professionals and strengthening national health systems, we’re working towards a future where safe surgery is part of life across Africa. This is long-term change that will continue for generations.
Looking ahead, partnerships are at the heart of making this happen. That’s why we are working with governments in every country we serve, aligning with their priorities and investing in lasting change. Increasingly, we’re also partnering with universities, institutions, and development partners, because the scale of what’s needed calls for all of us.
Thank you for being part of this journey. You are not only changing lives today, but you are also helping to shape a future where safe surgery is accessible to all.
Shelley Pigott Executive Director, Mercy Ships UK
PS: Don’t forget you can join me on the Thames Bridges Trek on Saturday, 12th September by signing up at mercyships.org.uk/trek
Image: (Above) Tina in recovery on the Africa Mercy
The mirror moment you made possible
Joseph lived with a cleft lip for 22 years. The loneliness this condition brought wasn’t only painful, it was expensive too. Farmhands refused to work for him. Neighbours kept their distance. He felt like an outsider in the very place he called home.
The dreams he’d once carried had begun to fade, too. “I wanted to go to school and one day become a politician to develop my community,” he said. “But I couldn’t realise my dream because of this condition.”
Instead, he farmed. He went home to a wife who loved him. And he carried the weight of lost dreams and the stigma of his condition, every single day.
Back in 2016, when he was just 14 years old, a door opened for Joseph. The Africa Mercy sailed to Madagascar, offering free surgery to patients with conditions like Joseph’s. His aunt pleaded with him to go.
He couldn’t go through with it. What if people stared? What if they laughed at him? He had never left his village so the idea of travelling to the port city brought fear. So, he stayed home. For eight more years, Joseph lived with the weight of that decision.
Then in 2024, Mercy Ships returned to Madagascar and this time, Joseph found the courage to come onboard.
He woke at 3am and walked. After 12 hours of travel, he reached the port city of Toamasina where the Africa Mercy was docked.
As he neared the end of the exhausting journey, his loneliness felt heavier than ever. “If I had friends,” he said. “I wouldn’t have walked alone.”
He didn’t know it yet, but he wasn’t going to feel alone anymore – because he was walking towards a hospital ship full of volunteers from different parts of the world. Highly skilled surgeons, dedicated nurses and a crew bound together by a shared conviction to bring hope and healing to people like Joseph.
“I am a farmer and a husband, but I feel alone all the time because people don’t want to be around me. I can’t even hire labourers to work on my farm.”
Behind every volunteer making the medical mission to Madagascar and elsewhere possible, are supporters like you. Thanks to your generosity and kindness, there was a hospital ship waiting. There were surgeons ready. There was hope at the end of the journey.
Your gift can travel further than you imagine
In Madagascar, 80% of the population lives below the poverty line. Access to specialised healthcare is almost non-existent. “We don’t have surgeons in my village or money to pay for the surgery,” Joseph explained. This reality kept his condition untreated for over two decades.
Here in the UK, a child born with a cleft lip receives surgery within the first months of their life, followed by speech therapy, orthodontics,
and ongoing care. But for people like Joseph, none of that was possible.
Volunteer Lead Surgeon Dr David Chong noticed straightaway the toll the years had taken on this young man’s life. “Joseph is an example of a young man emotionally scarred by his cleft,” he observed. “Older patients tend to avoid eye contact and often seem unsure of themselves.”
Operations like Joseph’s are not only life-changing for patients, but they are also vital learning moments for local healthcare professionals being trained onboard. Each surgery becomes an opportunity to build skills, restore hope, and strengthen care for future patients.
On the day of his surgery, there were Malagasy surgeons, anaesthetists, nurses, speech therapists, and a dentist, all there to learn from our surgical team. Through Mercy Ships’ Medical Capacity Building Programme, in partnership with
Operation Smile, every surgery our volunteers perform on board becomes an opportunity to train the next generation of local medical professionals.
By giving to Mercy Ships today you can continue to train local doctors and nurses. One trained surgeon can go on to treat hundreds of patients like Joseph, in their own villages, in their own language, for the rest of their career.
Thanks to supporters like you, patients like Joseph will not walk alone.
Joseph recovered quickly from the surgery. Within days, he felt something shift inside him and the burden was lifted. When Joseph looked into the mirror for the first time after surgery, he didn’t speak of politics or harvests or the long road he had walked.
He said: “I want to become handsome after the surgery, and I also want to make friends.” Twenty-two years of longing, held in one simple sentence.
For Dr Chong, watching this transformation never gets old. “It’s like a relief. He can think to himself, ‘All that stuff I’ve carried for so long, I can actually let that go.’ It doesn’t mean his life will be perfect, but it’s one less load, one less burden to carry.”
Because of you, Joseph saw a new face in the mirror looking back at him, and a future that is filled with hope and friends.
Thank you so much for making this possible.
Right now, more people like Joseph are living with conditions that are treatable. Your gift can make hope and healing possible. Give today to help us reach the next Joseph.
Image: (Above) Joseph, relaxing in the hospital corridor with staff and other patients.
A future that walks forward
Her mother Christina tried a traditional healer, who massaged Tina’s leg hoping it would straighten. Tina grew older, unable to wear sandals, walk far, or go to school. Her family kept her home, uncertain of her future. Tina watched other children pass by, wondering if she would ever join them.
In Madagascar, around 1,200 children are born with clubfoot every year. Treatment is available, but many older children still miss out.
A programme built to strengthen
Mercy Ships began supporting clubfoot care in Madagascar in 2015, introducing the Ponseti method, a gentle approach that uses serial casting to guide the foot into the correct position. By 2025, when the Africa Mercy returned to Madagascar, more than 3,000 children had been treated. The focus shifted to strengthening existing care, especially for older children.
Tina was treated by our surgeons while local doctors observed and helped. Beginning with weekly serial casting, her foot was gently stretched and re-cast. “What we don’t want to do is jump straight to surgery,” explained Nick Veltjens, a Mercy Ships physiotherapist and Clubfoot Mentoring Programme Manager. “We want to slowly stretch
any
For Malagasy surgeon Dr Herinatolotra Onja Ramanamisata, the mentoring programme changed how he understood his own field. Through it, he learned that even for latepresenting cases like Tina’s, casting should come first, making any surgery lighter and less complex.
Volunteer orthopaedic surgeon Dr Rachel Buckingham put the mission plainly: “A big part of our work is to train local healthcare professionals, so that Mercy Ships becomes, hopefully in the future, unnecessary.”
When
knowledge stays
“Mercy Ships doctors don’t keep knowledge to themselves,” said Dr Saholy Razafindranaly, a Ponseti trainer. “They share it.”
“When you see a child improving, and at the same time you see a local team gaining confidence,” Nick Veltjens said, “that’s sustainability. The treatment will finish, but the knowledge will stay.”
Tina’s foot has been straightened, and she is back at school. When Mercy Ships sailed away, the clinicians remained, ready to treat more children like her. This is the lasting impact your support makes.
Tina was born with her left foot twisted on its side.
the foot... into a good position so
surgery needed is minimal.”
Image: Tina, during a home visit. (Below) on the dock at the end of her treatment to repair her clubfoot.
Are you heading to a Christian festival this summer? So are we.
This summer, we are hitting the road, and we’d love to connect. If you’re heading to Together Festival, Keswick Convention, Cedarwood Festival, Wildfires, or Big Church Festival, look out for the Mercy Ships stand, staff and volunteers. Come and say hello and meet the team behind the work your giving makes possible.
We will be at …
Together Festival: 20th June
Cedarwood Festival: 10th – 12th July
Wildfires: 23rd July – 26th July
Big Church Festival: 28th – 30th August
Keswick Convention: 18th July – 7th August
We hope to see you there.
A prayer for Mercy Ships
Lord, we think of the patients waiting for surgery, those who have carried pain for years, and we thank you that hope and healing are within reach for them.
We think of the volunteers who left comfort behind to offer their hands, their skills, their time and thank you that they receive as they give.
May every gift and prayer we offer travel with them. May every surgery be steady, every recovery swift, and every patient step into a life filled with hope and joy.
Amen.
Five litres of blood. Five donors. One morning-after miracle.
Dr Natalia Notkina is a consultant anaesthetist from Cambridge who volunteered with Mercy Ships in Senegal and Madagascar. She spoke to us about what she witnessed.
Q: What drew you to Mercy Ships?
I always wanted to do some volunteering work, but with young children, it didn’t fit into my life. Once they grew up, I looked into it and found Mercy Ships online. Then COVID arrived, and Mercy Ships paused operations. I thought it might never happen. So, when the email came through later, saying I could go, it was a great feeling.
Q: Can you share a moment that has stayed with you?
There was a young woman in Senegal with an aggressive tumour growing through her upper jaw, towards her brain. Her surgery became one of the most extraordinary cases I’ve seen in 20 years. The operation required five litres of blood, her entire blood volume, donated in real time by my colleagues from the operating theatre itself: a scrub nurse, a junior surgeon and an ICU nurse. In the UK, that kind of transfusion usually means a day in intensive care, sedated.
This woman walked past me in the corridor the next morning. It was truly a miracle.
Q: What did you bring home?
A changed self. I joined a community of hundreds of volunteers, doctors, nurses, engineers, and cooks who were using their skills and their time to serve others. Coming from post-COVID Britain, where people were barely managing, it was like stepping into a different life. I came back and couldn’t face the everyday material world in the same way. That’s when I decided to take a career break. Mercy Ships didn’t just change the patients’ lives. It changed me, too.
Order your book at: fiona-fry.myshopify.com
Mercy Ships volunteer from Lancashire seeks to turn a bucket list dream into £100,000 hope for children.
Nina Smith, a volunteer speaker for Mercy Ships based in Chorley, Lancashire, has published her debut children’s book - and every penny of first-year profits will go directly to fund life-saving surgeries for people in need of urgent medical care.
The book, Fiona Fry and the HairRaising Showdown, is a quirky, laughout-loud adventure for children aged 6–10, featuring potatoes as an unlikely hero. Nina spent three years learning the craft of children’s writing, including completing the BBC Maestro course with Julia Donaldson, before bringing her story to life.
“This book is more than just a story,”
Africa Mercy returned to Madagascar in May 2026
The Africa Mercy returned to Toamasina, Madagascar, in May 2026 following an extended maintenance and drydocking period.
This trip marks the sixth time our hospital ship has been in Madagascar and its third consecutive field service there. In 2025, the ship’s volunteer crew performed more than 1,370 surgeries and more than 7,110 dental procedures.
says Nina. “It’s a chance for families, schools, and communities to enjoy a fun read while helping change lives. Hopefully this slightly daft story about potatoes can help bring hope and healing to children in Africa through Mercy Ships.”
Nina’s fundraising goal is bold: £100,000 in 12 months.
Why not pick up your copy of Fiona Fry and the Hair-Raising Showdown today and help Nina reach her goal? Every purchase can bring a child one step closer to the free, life-changing surgery they desperately need.
Schools and organisations are welcome to enquire about author visits, resource packs, and bulk orders via Nina’s website.
The Medical Capacity Building programme team delivered more than 20,000 training hours to Malagasy. With your support, we will continue to strengthen the healthcare system there.
Image: (Right) Members of the Critical Medical Support Service team, including lab, biomed and pharmacy.
Remembering Hudson, the cat who helped fund life-saving surgeries
Hudson, the much-loved cat and fundraising hero for Mercy Ships, has passed away. Hudson delighted thousands through appearances in Emma’s cruise review videos, later inspiring the creation of Captain Hudson, raising over £140,000 to provide life-saving surgery across sub-Saharan Africa.
We are grateful to Emma for channelling her love for Hudson into something so purposeful, and to Hudson.
Will you carry a piece of Hudson’s legacy with you? Buy the latest versions of Captain Hudson and First Mate Rolo at: emmacruises. junipercreates.com
Sign up and join us at mercyships.org.uk/trek
Take on the Thames Bridges Trek for Mercy Ships
Join us on Saturday, 12th September 2026 for a fundraising challenge. Choose either the 25km Thames Bridges Trek or a shorter 10km option.
Every pound raised will help bring life-changing surgery to those without access to care.
Running with a purpose
A huge thank you to Sam Watkins from Helikon Shipping Enterprises Ltd and James Cameron Taylor from Marcura for lacing up their trainers and running the London Marathon to fundraise for Mercy Ships. Your dedication, training, and sacrifice mean the world to us–and to everyone we serve. So far, together they have raised £8,000
How you can help
As the days get brighter, why not step outdoors this season, and help transform lives?
Give
Help transform lives every month with a regular gift. Go to mercyships.org.uk/donate
Fundraise
From cake sales to dog walking, there are so many fun ways to fundraise. Find out more at mercyships.org.uk/fundraise
Leave a legacy
Let your love live on. Go to mercyships.org.uk/legacy to find out more about leaving a gift to Mercy Ships in your Will.
Volunteer
Share your talents on our hospital ships. Find your place on board: volunteer.mercyships.org
Pray
Pray for the patients we serve on our hospital ships. Find out how your church can support Mercy Ships at mercyships.org.uk/church
Follow us
Join our community of Mercy Shippers on Instagram, Facebook, or LinkedIn: @mercyshipsuk
Thank you for making hope and healing possible.
Image: (Below) Sam and (Right) James in training for the marathon.
