In 1995, two British missionaries stationed in Kenya found a newborn abandoned in a bag on the side of the road. They took her to an orphanage before adopting her and taking her back to London when she was 10.

Today, that child, named Becky Chaplin, is 30 years old and volunteering as an occupational therapist in third-world countries.

Chaplin was so young when she was found that her umbilical cord was still attached to her. A missionary, who was out jogging, came across the bag and looked inside to find the newborn.

Chaplin spent seven weeks in an orphanage before the British missionaries, who were a couple, adopted her from the orphanage.

She was educated in Kenya until the age of 10, when the British couple went back to East Grinstead, London, with her.

“Mom said when she picked me up that she felt that God was saying ‘this is your daughter’,” Chaplin said, according to Wyoming News.

While living in Kenya in her early years, she observed the extreme poverty around her, but said she was fortunate to have been adopted into a family that allowed her to have an education. Inspired to help others, she decided to pursue a career in healthcare.

“I’ve known since I was little that I wanted to help children and adults with disabilities,” Chaplin said.

She went on to earn a degree to become an occupational therapist before pursuing a master’s degree focusing on hand therapy, burns, and working in low-income countries, Wyoming News reported.

Chaplin worked for nearly five years in the UK, specializing in hand therapy and acquiring experience on the burns unit in East Grinstead, before learning about a hospital charity called Mercy Ships. According to its website, Mercy Ships uses hospital ships to bring hope and healing through free surgery and medical training in regions where resources are scarce.

Inspired by her background story, Chaplin left her job in the UK to volunteer on board the Global Mercy in Sierra Leone.

“I left my work in the UK to volunteer with Mercy Ships because I’ve always had a heart to come back to an African country.

“I wanted to do it once I had the skill or experience to be able to help.”

Chaplin started work on the Global Mercy as the rehabilitation team leader, working with burns patients recovering from free surgery on the hospital ship.

Later, when the Global Mercy moved to the port of Freetown in Sierra Leone, Becky ended up as a mentor to trainee physiotherapists.

At the time, Sierra Leone had built its first university-level physiotherapist course at the Tonkolili District College of Health Sciences.

“Before the degree program was started, anyone wishing to become a physiotherapist would have to fly to Ghana, Cuba, Kenya, or further afield for training,” Chaplin explained.

Sierra Leone, having about nine million people, had only six fully-trained physiotherapists.

However, five years after it established its university-level physiotherapist course, 15 people graduated from the bachelor’s program, with another 15 under the Diploma program. Chaplin began working with these graduates.

Currently, she works in a local hospital not far from where the hospital ship is docked. Her role at the hospital includes mentoring and upskilling physios around burn patients. 

“The high proportion of burn patients are under five years old.

“You see many accidents from boiling water or soup spilling onto small children.

“I work alongside the physios to build their methods of treating patients,” Chaplin explained.

“As Sierra Leone develops their resources, we hope we’ll begin to see less contractures come to the ship when we next visit Sierra Leone,” she stated.