Profile

I live in Truro, Cornwall with two friends and our cat. I live 10 minutes away from some beautiful beaches- perfect in summer when you can finish work and head straight to the beach for a BBQ or a surf. I enjoy staying active by running, cycling and surfing. I am currently on the scientific training programme (STP) where I specialise in vascular science. It is a 3 year course with my work based practical placement based at Royal Cornwall Hospital and completing my master’s through the University of Salford- which means quite a lot of travelling.

Using high technology science to enable us to listen and obtain some amazing images of our arteries and veins in our bodies so that we can help to diagnose important problems so that the doctors can try to fix them.

A typical day is busy from the start- I see patients from a range of clinics and those from the wards in the hospital throughout the day. I use ultrasound  (just like pregnant ladies have) technology to be able to see inside the body to look at the blood vessels. I can look at the blood flowing through the arteries and veins and can listen to the blood flow to see how fast it is flowing. I see patients’ with a range of vascular problems- those with deep vein thrombosis to stroke patients. I use the ultrasound imaging to see if there is any problems with their vascular system that could be causing their problems. Once I have imaged the patient I will write a report on what I have seen and what could be wrong with the patient. The results of our scanning help guide the doctors on the best treatment to help the patient.

As I am a trainee I am constantly still learning new things and skills but also means part of my day involves revising hard for exams/writing essays (this bit is less fun)! After a long but interesting day at work I like to wind down with a run, a gym session or a catch up with friends.

I would try to put on an open day in our hospital to allow students to be able to come into the department and get a really insight and hands on experience of vascular science and what our job really entails. They would get the opportunity to have a play with the ultrasound machine on jelly phantoms and to use hand held Dopplers to listen to their own arteries and veins. The event would also involve hands on demonstrations by other healthcare scientists to promote the diverse areas of science used within the hospital. The day would be a great opportunity to promote these growing areas of science, careers available to students once they leave school and the training programmes that they can go on and the routes to these. I would use the money to create educational resources i.e.- handouts, posters etc and audio-visual aids.