Newcastle United striker Papiss Cisse has revealed that he previously worked as an ambulance driver in his homeland of Senegal.
The 27-year-old, who moved to St James' Park last year, said that he would help his local hospital in Sedhiou from the age of 15 due to a lack of resources.
"Where I grew up in Sedhiou the hospital didn't really have anything," Cisse told The Sun. "So I would take people from my hometown to another town, Dakar, where there was a better hospital.
"You would have to take people for three or four hours in the ambulance. And I did unfortunately witness a lot of deaths while on the road because they couldn't last the entire journey.
"That is something which hurts a lot when I think back to it. If I have a personal objective in life it is really to help the hospital in the town where I was from. I want them to have more resources so they can deal with people on site."
Cisse runs his own charity Friends of Sedhiou and aims to give back to the hospital by raising money for a new ambulance and medical equipment.
Danielle Joynson
