British medic who is fighting Ebola at London hospital vows to go back to Sierra Leone where he contracted the disease

The British nurse struck down by ebola while working in West Africa has vowed to return to the disease-hit region as soon as he is better.

William Pooley contracted the deadly virus while working 18 hour days at a desperately understaffed hospital in Sierra Leone, where medics are battling to contain the outbreak.

He is now being treated on a London hospital ward after he was airlifted back to the UK by the RAF after catching ebola from the very victims he was trying to save.

But he has told friends in Africa he is sure he will beat the disease - and is determined to fly back to the region to save other victims when he recovers.

 

Gabriel Madiye, who worked alongside Mr Pooley at the Shepherd's Hospice in Freetown, was one of the last people to speak to the British nurse before he was flown home.

He told the Sun: 'He was very sure that once he was in England, the excellent medical care in Great Britain would help him recover in a matter of weeks and he would come back to us.' 

Before contracting ebola, Mr Pooley, 29, had graphically depicted the horror in the African hospital where he had selflessly volunteered to help those stricken by the outbreak.

 

He was forced to make the painful decision to leave sufferers alone overnight after the other staff fled. It came after angry locals rioted outside the hospital in response to rumours that ebola was a ruse to steal sufferers' blood and harvest their organs.