On day one, Anne Carey met a woman who had already lost six children to the Ebola virus and was about to lose her last. 
The nurse had travelled to Sierra Leone in   December 2014, the year an Ebola outbreak spread across West Africa. Hundreds were travelling to the Kenema treatment centre and often arrived too late to be helped.
While some survived, patients often died within a week. "We had hundreds of people but no place to put them," Carey (above) said.
A large part of Carey's job at the treatment centre was to provide pain relief to Ebola patients in their final stages.
"We'd try and keep them comfortable and take away their fear ... touch them, talk to them through the mask, try to be with them and offer comfort," she said.
Her greatest challenge was discovering those who had died alone.
Carey had always wanted to work overseas and had her heart set on Africa after she left school at 14. She worked as a nurse in Papua New Guinea and Sudan, and went to Sierra Leone because of the slow international response to the crisis.
If named Australian of the Year on Wednesday, Carey hopes to use her profile to confront Australians on workplace bullying and the fear and racism associated with refugees.