Lifelab

What do you actually do?

Work in clinical and laboratory medicine and science to look after and research into people with illness.

What is the name of your company?

National Health Service Blood and Transplant and Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals Trust

How did you get to where you are now?

A Level Biology, Chemistry, Physics, maths
University College London – Immunology then
University College Hospital London – Medical degree
Further studies with Colleges Physicians and Pathologists

I chose medicine because I was sat on a big pile of cushions to look down a microscope when I was 3 years old at a relative’s house.

What do you like best about your job?

Helping people with illnesses and studying to improve care of patients, working within multidisciplinary teams.

What would your top tips be to a 16-year old considering working in this field?

Medicine offers a wide variety of career options. You need enthusiasm and stamina. There are many non medical jobs e.g. donor carer within blood service with NVQ type qualifications to biomedical scientists and senior clinical scientists.

Tell us something about yourself.

My job is very varied and I usually do not not know what my day will be like when I go to work. I could be talking to a patient and their family after a new cancer diagnosis, arranging blood products to transfuse to an as yet unborn baby in the womb, managing a project, arranging research samples or teaching.