UCAS Convention

UCAS convention at Surrey university on Monday the 13th of March was great fun! Went around stalls of so so many universities (that took up two giant sports halls) and got the chance to speak to their representatives about course and uni information, as well as being given lots and lots of prospectus to read! That'll keep me busy :)

Rare Disease Day - Royal Holloway University of London

Friday February 24th, the day I visited Royal Holloway University of London for the Rare Disease Day lectures!

After a 2 hour train journey and a 20 minute walk, my friends and I found ourselves walking up the beautiful hills of the university campus. (We were shocked that the castle was part of it!)

At 9:30am, Dr Rafael Yanez gave a presentation on the introduction to rare diseases, The statistics were astonishing; In Europe alone, 1 in 2000 people are affected with a rare disease (which there are over 6000 discovered). He spoke of the importance and need for researchers and doctors, as gene and stem cell therapy are developing but there needs to be more awareness and funding.

At 10:10am, Lauren Roberts from Genetic Alliance UK (charity here) spoke about "SWAN" patients, who have syndromes without a name. She showed us the affect of rare diseases on the people and their families. 6000 children each year are born with SWAN, but only 50% are tested. It's hard to find treatment, care and help when you don't even know your own diagnosis, My heart definitely goes out to them all.

The lectures then unfortunately over-ran on schedule, so Sean Kelly and Alberto Malerba gave presentations on 2 rare diseases: Ataxia Telangiectasia (A-T) which affects children;s balance and motor condition, and Oculopharyngeal Muscular Dystrophy and the chemical aspect of it.

We were then all split into groups and escorted to the exhibition, which was full of different charities and organisations we could speak to and find out further information and make donations. It was so much fun, I brought a whole bag full of brochures and leaflets home!

Then at lunch, I got to explore the campus with my friends. It was truly stunning, with a castle (which has a restaurant, library and sleeping quarters..etc), on-site convenience store, live music bar, modern accommodation buildings and so much more.  I'm heart-broken that the university doesn't do undergraduate medicine courses- or else I would definitely apply (although biomedical sciences look tempting too so we'll see...!)


Afterwards we all got the chance to use the massive labs and do experiments representing recessive and dominant genes, and whether the outcome "baby" would be affected, unaffected or a carrier of a rare disease. After that, we then got to go "speed dating" around different stations, where students spoke about their experience and university/ course information, as well as all the extra-curricular and other opportunities. This was a very helpful session, I found it so informative and persuasive!
We then split into groups and were given case studies to analyse of potential patients, and make or diagnosis. We ten went through the answers and reasoning (my group got it all correct!) and were given haribos as a prize. We then spoke to more students with any further questions, before departing the beautiful university to catch the train home.
I loved it and learnt so much, as well as making new friends.. and it was free! If you get the chance, definitely go to a rare disease day event near you (every February).

Events here
University here

SJA Disco Duty

Example report, very simplified

On the Friday that just passed (10th Feb) my sister and I had our first ever duty as first aiders at St John's ambulance.

It was at a police-held disco for teenagers, where we had to treat one girl who was experiencing pain in her ankle while she was wearing a leg brace.

Thankfully it wasn't a horrific injury, and the girl just required an ice pack while the adult first aiders examined her ankle for any fractures.

I filled in lots of paper work though (for legal reasons) which are quite lengthy but in my opinion really fun! As you have to write in detail of what happened, all patient information, medical history, allergies..etc.

Luckily the girl was fine and eventually went back to the party, but later returned with further pain so we stayed with her and just had a chat to make sure the patient was okay and to try and distract her from her ankle.

Hope to do some more duties soon!

Medicine Masterclass at the University of Cambridge

An early 6am wake up was required for the 3 hour journey ahead to trial Medicine on Saturday the 4th February, 2017. 

My dad drove me to Cambridge and as we arrived early, I had the opportunity to do some sight seeing of the local area.

Then at 11am I walked into the ground of Cambridge University to the Lady Mitchell Hall, where I was signed in and given a wrist band, and escorted to the back of the lecture hall. It was already so full of people, there were extra seats placed against the back walls where I sat. 

The first lecture was called "How blood goes round the body" presented by Dr Dunecan Massey. I found this lecture very interesting, however extremely hard to keep up with. It required further knowledge of biology and physics that I did not know- so my notes on this lecture are very messy! It was evident that the lecturer was very clever and clearly knew what he was talking about (I hope I'll be like that one day!) He spoke about the 2 theories of blood: purple Nutritive and red diffusive, veins-collecting system, arteries-delivering system, organ perfusion, cardiac output...etc, as well as the people behind the discoveries! 

At 12noon, the second lecture began called "Nature's Medicine Cabinet: from root to remedy" by Ms Sonja Dunbar. This was probably my favourite lecture as it was easier to understand and was interactive with the audience. We learnt about the 'Scarcity-Accessibility Hypothesis' and basically how nettles, lemons, mustard plants, aloe vera... etc are used to treat or cause medical side effects. Some students were chosen to smell and guess different natural remedies, and there were several opportunities for us as students to discuss questions and answers such as how much it costs to develop a drug from idea to market (answer: £1.2billion!) What I found most interesting was how Chilli's (capasaicin) are structurally similar to vanilla, and how the spice is detected by humans but not birds (and why that is).

We then had a lunch break at 1pm where chocolate was given and I was able to meet up with a few of my friends who also went along and discussed the master class thus far.

Then promptly at 1:30pm the final lecture began on "Pain and lessons from the naked mole-rat" by Dr Ewan Smith. This talk was about pharmacology - the study of how chemical agents affect biological systems, as well as nocioception and the experimentation with naked-mole rats. It was found that the mole-rats did not detect acid as painful, and Cambridge university carried out research as to why this was. We were also shown a very cute video of how the mole-rats lived within the university- no abuse of course!

Then lastly at 2:30pm Dr Smith then invited current university students to the stage where they informed us how to apply to Cambridge, tips and advise, as well as an open Q&A with the audience on their life at university and extra course information. The day then came to a close at 3:15pm officially, but the students were kind enough to stay behind and answer any other questions that we had.

Over all, the master class was highly informative and really gave an insight into university life and how fascinating medicine is. 

I found this event through their website and the total cost for the ticket was £20. However, Medicine isn't the only Master Class offered as there are so many available to try. I would definitely recommend it to students who are unsure of what they want to study, or just want to test themselves of suitability.

Link to Master Classes here

Thanks Cambridge University for the incredible opportunity! 

Cadet Supervisor & Updates

As of the 11th of January my sister and I were given the opportunity to volunteer at Cadets to look after and assist the Badgers (younger first aid learners) every Wednesday as part of being St John's Ambulance older members of the pre-teen/teen unit.  I can't wait to carry on building my communication skills with younger children and widen my understanding of St John's and first aid.

We also have a first aid duty coming up to supervise a local disco, which I look forward to as I've never applied first aid publicly before!

I've also booked several tickets for various medicine-related courses and talk for the following month so I can't wait for a busy and informative February.

And lastly, I got an e-mail a few days ago from one of the Doctors who spoke at InvestIn's Young Doctor Programme (link to my post about them here) which was such a lovely surprise! So happy that my post was actually read and liked by the course director. He even asked if this blog could be used as a reference in future talks and be linked to their social media, which of course I happily accepted! So thank you Dr Manik :)

Medical Mavericks

The Medical Mavericks Workshop at college on Tuesday the 10th of January was so much fun and a great way to start the new school year! The company came into school to set up different medical stations to let students try different tools and activities while learning various healthcare pathways.

I had the opportunity to have 2 ultrasounds: one I did myself of my heart, having to be careful to use the £2000 ultrasound machine (yikes) and have cold cold ultrasound gel up my ribs which was very entertaining and I managed to get my friend to film it for me, as it's not every day you get the chance to see your own heart in action! 

The other ultrasound was done by one of the members of staff at Medical Mavericks on my wrist, where I discovered I have no more growth plates (meaning I've reached my full growth capacity at 5"5 tall😆) which was fascinating to discover, I didn't even know it was possible to tell when your bones have stopped growing! 

Wrist Ultrasound

wrist growth plates missing

I also had a photo of my eye taken showing "tiger stripes" which are only present with Asian heritage apparently, which was done using similar equipment to those at an opticians when they need to analyse your eye. I wonder which bit indicates my poor eye sight...

Photo of my eye!

We also had the chance for other activities within the hour and a half session to draw blood from a fake arm using a needle- even though the fake veins were larger than normal it was still quite hard to do without puncturing the patient! 

You could also measure blood pressure, wear eye disease goggles (such as tunnel vision), explore different career options, have an ECG printed and have several respiratory tests (I have a lung age of 1, yayyy!) [by the way apparently the photo of the tar jar is what collects in your lungs if you smoke 10 cigarettes for a year so please don't smoke]. 

Everything was incredible I'm so happy to have been able to partake in it so thank you to my college and Medical Mavericks☺️ 

Check out Medical Mavericks (located in Wolverhampton) here

The Tar Jar

ECG set up

ECG print

Drawing Blood!

Debra & Care Home December Updates

Hope everyone had a lovely new year! I was a bit carried away with Christmas so here are some updates:

On the 22nd of December I volunteered for Debra again except this time I took my sister along and we wrapped presents for charity! People in the shopping center would come to us to rap their Christmas gifts for a donation in return. It deemed really popular and raised over £2000 throughout the Christmas week.

I also volunteered at the care home on the 19th and 24th, where on the Monday I helped move some furniture and assisted residents around the home. On Christmas eve, I was given the task of playing the piano and singing some Christmas carols! It caused some complications of me learning the songs in a different keys and the lyrics being printed in a different order... but it was certainly an experience! At least everyone felt in the Christmas spirit. A few days ago on the 2nd of January, I also took my sister in to sing "songs that won the war", and that definitely seems to be a favourite among the residents :)