Just before this BBC podcast gets underway, here's something you may not know.

My name's Linda Davies and I Commission Podcasts for BBC Sounds.

As you'd expect, at the BBC we make podcasts of the very highest quality featuring the most knowledgeable experts and genuinely engaging voices.

What you may not know is that the BBC makes podcasts about all kinds of things like pop stars,

poltergeist, cricket, and conspiracy theories and that's just a few examples.

If you'd like to discover something a little bit unexpected, find your next podcast over at BBC Sounds. This is the Witness History Podcast from the BBC World Service. I'm Sharon Hemans.

Nurses from the African continent are a vital part of Britain's medical workforce.

Their contribution to the health service has been in the spotlight more

recently because of the disproportionate number of black health care workers who

have died from COVID-19.

Cecilia Anim, who came to the UK from Ghana in 1972, is one nurse who made her mark, and she's

been speaking to me about her journey.

Cecilia Accresienin grew up in Western Ghana and always wanted to be a nurse.

Her aunt had been one of many to leave Ghana after independence in 1957 to train and work abroad.

Her aunt was a nurse in Manchester in the 1950s and her visits to Ghana inspired a young

Cecilia.

My aunt is said that nursing in the UK is quite different.

There was opportunity to learn new skills,

and actually you can be what you want to be the resources are also there to support you.

But one thing she kept saying that sometimes as a black person it's very difficult to fit in.

Cecilia Anim qualified as a midwife and by the time she was 21 she was running a clinic in Ghana.

I was running a health center on my own in the Western region of Ghana and a doctor

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