Ms Asling took three international flights, spending 27 hours in the air over two days to get to the small west African nation to work as a volunteer theatre nurse on a hospital ship.

She said she had to Google Benin to find where it was after she was offered the two-week posting on the Mercy Ships operated by an American charity.

She volunteered after a Warrnambool colleague Hannah Newell spoke about her experience working as a volunteer on a hospital ship, which inspired her to do likewise.

Ms Asling said her time on the ship was a great experience and it had been uplifting working with other like-minded volunteer nurses and surgeons.

It also left her appreciating a lot of things she had previously taken for granted.

She paid for her airfares and $350 crew fees for the privilege of working nine and a half hour shifts five days a week plus being on call on weekends.

The accommodation on the seven-deck former ocean liner was basic and she slept in a small six-bed dormitory.

But she said she found the experience of making a profound difference to the lives of people who could not afford health care very “humbling.”

She said the operations gave patients more of a chance of having a healthy life. 

She was part of team of 400 volunteers from 40 nations working on the ship.

Some of the volunteers did short stints like Ms Asling while others worked there for as long as 10 months.

The surgery she helped perform included the removal of life-threatening tumours, repair of cleft lips and palates, plastic reconstructive surgery, hernia repairs, cataract surgery and the correction of orthopedic deformities in children.

Ms Asling said the ship had six operating theatres, a 78-bed hospital and was well-equipped with medical equipment.

Benin has at least six tribal languages and the Mercy Ships organisation employed interpreters to communicate with patients.

She got to see little of Benin, spending most of her time on the ship but did get off one Sunday to see some of the port city of Cotonou, Benin’s capital.