The award was made to Sr Hilary, a member of the Missionary Sisters of the Holy Rosary, for her contribution to health services in Sierra Leone over 42 years.

Holy Spirit Missionary Sisters ask for prayers for Sr Veronika Rackova “that her blood and death will be like a seed sown for greater peace.”

“What was it about the life she had lived that made her into the person she was at 100 years of age - so vital and energetic and joyful and generous.”

Irish missionary is helping over half a million of Kenya's poorest eking out an existence in a slum with inadequate sanitation, medical, educational and water services.