Profile

CV

• Education:

  When I was younger my family moved all over the place so I never stayed in one school for very long! I have always loved studying science though!

  When I was in 15 I studied at Lockerbie Academy in a small town in South West Scotland.

  At 16, we moved to Queensland, Australia! You don’t have as big of a change in weather as Scotland to Australia I’m telling you!

  I finished high school over there in a school called Albany Creek State High School, near the city of Brisbane, on the Gold Coast. I balanced my final exams with spotting snakes and koalas in my backyard!

  I started University after I finished high school at The University of Queensland, a huuuuuge university with lots of high tech facilities and amazing teachers. They also had wild turkeys around campus who liked to make a mess and steal your lunch if you sat still for long enough!

  I started studying Genetics, the study of the DNA that is the building blocks of every single living thing! Biology was always my favourite subject and I decided once I learnt about DNA that I wanted to study that and figure out how something so small could change something as big as a whole person!

  Finally I moved back to England and finished my degree with a Masters at the University of York. York is definitely my most favourite place I have ever lived. The city is very old with lots of history to explore and the university taught me a lot, not just in my degree but in other skills and helped me discover myself!

  Now I live in Southampton where I work and study while also traveling to Manchester occasionally to study from experts in my field while I train in my new job.

• Current Job:

  Currently I am training as a Clinical Scientist in Haematology and Transfusion Science.

  A clinical scientist works in hospital labs to help investigate illnesses and diagnose patients based on lab tests we perform. We work behind the scenes to support doctors and nurses in finding the right treatments for you.

  Haematology is just the fancy way of saying the study of blood! My work revolves around testing and looking at blood samples sent from thousands of different people and trying to figure out what’s wrong with them. From making sure you have enough of the vitamins to finding infections, we cover a whole range of different illnesses.

  Transfusion is what happens when someone needs extra blood given to them, whether they have an illness that needs treating or are going for surgery or have been in an accident. Having enough of the right blood is critical for your health. In transfusion science we test all the blood we have and match a patient with the perfect blood for them and make sure its safe before the doctors give it to them.

• Employer:

  I work for the NHS at Southampton General Hospital. It is a really big hospital that has lots of different departments and has 7 floors! Since we are such a big hospital we have patients that come from all over the area to see our doctors and get there tests done here. This means there is lots of work for us in the lab to keep busy!