Hi, my name is Hannah and I’m currently a year 12 at St Leonards Catholic School in Durham, I’m also a med student with Medic Mentor and have recently become one of the wellbeing officers on the VMS committee. As a wellbeing officer, my role is to help write the weekly wellbeing blog in which issues related to wellbeing such as stress are discussed. Through this blog, I hope to be able to support all students in the VMS and as part of this, Aaliyah and I would love your suggestions for any topics which you would like to cover in the future.  

My involvement with Medic Mentor began just over a year ago when I attended a National Healthcare weekend in Stirling (now called Get into Medicine conferences). This conference was extremely useful and helped me decide to peruse medicine as it gave me the required information to make an educated decision. After that, I signed up for the Medic Mentor summer school which I will attend this summer and then signed up to the awards program. This program is truly amazing and has taught me how to reflect on everything I do form wider reading to work experience which is a very important skill for basically anything that you do when deciding to apply to a healthcare career. I am also involved in the medical awards program and attend the meetings in Stirling (shout out to all the Scottish students). Each meeting has been useful and allowed me to improve my presentation and leadership skills. These skills will help me to fulfil my role as a welfare officer and with luck allow me to improve everyone else’s experiences in the VMS by discussing everyday issues that we all face. I would recommend signing up for any of these programs if you’re thinking about it and if you have any questions from what they’re like as a student I would be happy to answer them. 

Outside of school, I have been volunteering at a local Hospice for the past few months which has certainly been eye-opening and taught me a lot about how MDTs work and the valuable role that each member of the Hospice Team plays. I would really encourage people to volunteer if they are interested after lockdown is over because it’s not only a valuable learning experience but it also, gives you the chance to make a real difference to someone’s day which is always a plus. Personally, I can’t wait to get back after lockdown is over. Karate has also been a huge part of my life for the past 5 years and almost a year and a half ago now I got my first dan black belt. As a result, one of the things I’m finding hardest in lockdown is not being able to attend karate lessons or exercise classes in general as I’m sure many of you are. The main thing I miss about karate is not only the exercise but also seeing all the little kids who just brighten up your day who, I was fortunate to be able to help out with letting me develop my patience and communication skills. I defiantly used these a lot and will continue to use . As I was lucky enough to have a sport that I love taking up so much of my time when lockdown hit I was a bit lost with what to do with myself so decided to volunteer with Medic Mentors COVID19 fund to raise money for the Royal Medical Benevolent Fund which is a very worthy organisation and a great way to spend time. Right now, the main thing that I look forward to every day is my daily walk or watching Brooklyn 99 on a Thursday night which I am sure many of you can relate to.

I’m not really sure what I want to do after Medical School or even what speciality I want to go into but I do have three main goals for the future:

  • To be happy
  • To be able to improve peoples lives or even just their day by continuing the truly amazing work of the NHS
  • To improve the lives and support people in my local community.

*side note here, I’d also really love to learn how to bake which will definitely take me a good amount of time.

If you have any ideas for the blog or questions please get in touch.

If you would like to post Hannah a question, please comment below and she will get back to you!

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