THREE Scots who have been at the forefront of the fight against Ebola are to receive medals at a reception in Downing Street.
George Turkington, John McGhie and Dr Roger Alcock, who all worked on the Ebola response in Sierra Leone, are to be recognised at the event hosted by the Prime Minister David Cameron on Wednesday.
Mr Turkington, from Glasgow, is the director of the Ebola Crisis Team at the Department for International Development and led the UK's Ebola taskforce in the West African country from earlier this year.
He was also awarded CBE in New Year's Honours 2014 for leading the UK's humanitarian work in Pakistan for four years.
John McGhie is a procurement & commercial specialist for the East Kilbride-based Department for International Development and has been in Sierra Leone since December.
Dr Roger Alcock, who is based at Forth Valley Royal Hospital in Scotland., was NHS volunteer based at the British built Port Loko Emergency Treatment Centre during the first deployment of NHS volunteers to Sierra Leone.
International Development Secretary, Justine Greening thanked the trio for their work in fighting the disease which has claimed more than 10,000 lives in west Africa.
He said: "I warmly congratulate George Turkington, John McGhie and Dr Roger Alcock on winning medals for their contribution to the fight against the deadly Ebola virus in Sierra Leone.
"Like many other British experts, volunteers and members of our armed forces, they worked in challenging and often dangerous situations to help fight a disease which has killed over 11,000 people.
"It is thanks to the efforts of these people that case numbers have dramatically dropped and many thousands of lives have been saved. Scotland and the whole of the UK can be truly proud of their achievements."
The UK Government has committed £427 million to the effort. Our contribution has included supporting more than half of all the beds available for Ebola patients in Sierra Leone.
It has funded over 100 burial teams, trained 4,000 frontline staff, provided three labs to test one third of all samples collected nationally, and delivered over one million safety suits and 150 vehicles, including ambulances.
In January, Scottish nurse Pauline Cafferkey became the first person in Britain to be diagnosed with the disease soon after she returned from working in Sierra Leone.
Ms Cafferkey, who worked at a health centre in Blantyre, South Lanarkshire, spend several weeks in isolation receiving treatment at the Royal Free Hospital in London before making a full recovery.
Following her brush with death, Miss Cafferkey said she was "happy to be alive."
The nurse, aged 39, was diagnosed with Ebola after returning to Glasgow and was initially admitted to the city's Gartnavel Hospital on December 29, before being transferred to the Royal Free the following day.
Miss Cafferkey, from Cambuslang in South Lanarkshire, had worked as a volunteer with Save The Children at the Ebola Treatment Centre in Kerry Town before returning to the UK.
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