Our latest 'Throwback Thursday' story from the Advertiser's archives first appeared in our pages 10 years ago, when we reported on a Rosneath nurse's three-month stint volunteering in Livingstone in Zambia.

Here's how we helped tell Amy McMurtrie's story in the Advertiser on April 23, 2009...

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A ROSNEATH nurse has told of her life-changing experience as a medical volunteer in a poverty stricken African nation.

Amy McMurtrie has just returned from a three-month stint as a volunteer in the Zambian province of Livingstone, treating patients and helping with community projects such as teaching and building a school.

Amy spent each day working with patients in local clinics or in St Joseph’s Hospice treating the terminally ill.

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Medical services in the southern African nation are extremely stretched as qualified professionals often leave the country, searching for higher pay and a better quality of life elsewhere.

Amy told the Advertiser: “My time in Zambia was one of the most amazing experiences of my life. I loved every minute of it.

"It was a very rewarding experience which allowed me to gain unique medical experience and provide a positive impact on the health service.

“In the mornings I would work in one of the four local clinics within the compounds situated around Livingstone, in the out patients department taking observations of patients before they would see the doctor.

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"The days I wouldn’t be in the clinic I would be working in the hospice.

“It was run by amazing staff. This was one of the most rewarding projects – I loved it and it changed me as an individual and as a nurse.”

Amy also worked with a volunteer agency know as Homebase Care, visiting patients who couldn’t afford to go to clinics and administering treatment for late-stage cases of HIV, TB and malaria.