A young Co Donegal aid worker has died in a single-car accident in Ethiopia just days after celebrating her 25th birthday.
Joyce Campbell, from Meenmore, Dungloe, Co Donegal, had been on a voluntary aid mission with a group of Irish people in Ethiopia when she died in a crash on Sunday night.
She had been working with the Vincentian Lay Missioners in Ethiopia for the past three weeks and was to have spent four months there.
The single-car crash happened as she was returning to her base camp with two others from the group, Paul Brady from Kildare and Alan Matthews from Dublin, both in their 20s. She died instantly.
The two men were injured in the crash but it is understood the injuries are not life-threatening.
Last night, friends in Dungloe said that working with the underprivileged was something Joyce always wanted to do. She was described as being totally committed to this type of work.
"Since she went out, Joyce had indicated she loved the work she was doing and that she was very happy," one friend said.
Local Minister of State for the Marine and relative Pat The Cope Gallagher said last night the entire family and community was devastated at this tragic and untimely death. He described her as a very special person who was loved by all who were fortunate to have known her.
"She only celebrated her 25th birthday at the weekend," Mr Gallagher said. "She was a young girl who had experience and qualifications and had so much to offer the poor and underprivileged of the area where she had been assigned.
"In her phone conversations and e-mails with her parents, she was very clear that she was extremely happy and found great satisfaction in work in the short time she was there."
Arrangements were being made last night in consultation with the Department of Foreign Affairs to have her body brought home to Donegal.
Meanwhile, three other members of the family are in Australia and Hong Kong and they were flying home last night to be with their distraught parents.
Ms Campbell had a BSc degree in development, health and disaster management and an MSc in humanitarian assistance.
"In her phone calls home to her parents and friends, she was always extremely happy and expressed great satisfaction in the work she was doing," a family friend said.
Her parents, Paddy and Irene, were being comforted by relatives and neighbours last night as they tried to come to terms with the terrible tragedy.
Mr Campbell is a local auctioneer.
Ms Campbell is also survived by three brothers, Derek, Stewart and Kenneth, and two sisters, Helen and Mary Pat.