Southampton nurse returns after helping Morocco earthquake victims

Sarah McBride said: "We saw villages that were completely devastated..."

A nurse has returned to the UK after spending 12 days trying to help the victims of the devastating earthquake in Morocco.

Sarah McBride, 40, from Southampton, was among a group of volunteers from the Wiltshire-based charity REACT.

The team flew out to help with the relief efforts in any way they could.

Ms McBride described the effects of the earthquake as "devastating" and "quite a hard sight to see".

Ms McBride said: "Being a mother myself, it really hit home"

The 6.9-magnitude quake struck on 8 September at 23:00 local time killing nearly 3,000 people and injuring thousands more.

Ms McBride, who spent time in Afghanistan, Iraq and Sierra Leone during a 23-year career in the military, left the forces last year to work as a nurse.

She went out to Morocco to help the wounded and to build whatever was needed.

She said: "We saw villages that were completely devastated... 100% collapse of buildings, there have been deaths and it's quite a hard sight to see.

Ms McBride's first job was digging emergency latrines to help with sanitation

"The lack of sanitation is just asking for disease, getting emergency sanitation and sorting out basic things like hand-washing that was one of our key concerns."

In her medical work she helped to rehydrate week-old twins who were in danger of becoming seriously ill.

Ms McBride said: "I helped a mother with her twins, we chatted through an interpreter and she was so grateful for the help but being a mother myself, it really hit home."

Ms McBride will be back at work nursing in Southampton on Monday proud of the difference her team made in Morocco.

Ms McBride travelled to the country with a team from the charity REACT