Profile

I love cats, so when my husband and I were lucky to buy a house together I made sure one of the first things we did was adopt a cat! We adopted our black and white tuxedo cat Kevin in 2021, and enjoy having lots of cuddles and playtime with him.

My husband and I also both love gaming! He built our very own gaming PC and we have spent many hours on a weekend playing. If we are playing together we love to play things like Stardew Valley. If I am playing on my own I love story focussed games, some of my past favourites are Farcry 5, Red Dead Redemption 2 and Horizon Zero Dawn.

Every month my friends and I get together and spend a day playing Dungeons and Dragons. It a great way to get creative – currently I am playing an elf ranger who is an expert archer (think Legolas in Lord of the Rings) and has a panther companion.

I like to do yoga before I go to bed as it is a great way to move my body, especially if I’ve not moved to from my computer much! It is also a great way to destress.

I also have Type 1 diabetes, this means I have to inject myself with insulin everyday to help me process my food. Without insulin I get very sick. I was diagnosed in 2023 so am still quite new to everything, but it has not stopped me enjoying all the things I love!

In an NHS Laboratory there are different sections (Biochemistry, Haematology, Immunology, Microbiology and Histopathology).

Biochemistry: this department looks at the chemistry (chemical reactions) happening in living things (in this case humans).

Haematology: this department looks at people’s blood. They will often look at blood cells under a microscope.

Immunology: this department looks at people’s immune systems (how we fight off infections).

Microbiology: this department tries grows bacteria from people’s samples to see if there is something there that should not be.

Histopathology: this department looks at different tissues under a microscope.

I work in the Biochemistry Department. Here we look at the chemistry happening in people by measuring lots of different things. Most of our samples are blood, but we also measure things in urine and faeces (poo). A lot of this is done on large machines (analysers) and is automated, but we also have more specialist tests which are more manual. This is called Special Chemistry. I work mainly in the Special Chemistry section of Biochemistry and I am also in charge of looking after our Send Away Section. Not every laboratory is able to do every test so something we send away samples to another laboratory for them to test things for us, this is what our Send Away Section does.

The test results can help doctors work out what is wrong with people (diagnosing a disease) or they can help rule out diseases as the cause of somebody’s symptoms. This helps your doctor understand what it going on and how best to treat you. They can also be used be doctors to monitor people with long term conditions – like my diabetes.

The test results can also help confirm things, like confirming someone is pregnant, or making sure a regular medication (drug) you are taking is at the right level in your blood to be working properly (this is called therapeutic drug monitoring).

I have lots of different responsibilities. A couple of times a week and I am the “Duty Biochemist”. This means that I sit in a special office and I am responsible for authorising test results and answers any questions doctors and nurses may have over the phone or by email. If there are any problems with samples in the laboratory then the Duty Biochemist is responsible for dealing with them that day.

The rest of time I work on things within the Special Chemistry or Send Away Section. This could be:

• researching new tests and setting them up in the laboratory
• reviewing data
• keeping documents up to date and writing new ones
• writing presentations about interesting cases and topics

I also take part in people’s learning by supervising people when doing their projects or presentations on different topics. I also mark work for a specialist laboratory qualification.

I also do special tests in clinics where I met patients in person and do specialist tests with them directly.

I love that everyday is different and that there is always something new to learn!

My typical day is a typical day when I am the “Duty Biochemist” for the day – most of our days are very different from each other, so it is hard to describe a typical day but days when I am the Duty Biochemist are the most similar.

I wake up around 7am and the first thing I have to do is feed my cat Kevin or else he gets very grumpy with me. Then go for a shower, have breakfast, get dressed and go work which starts at 9am.

I sit in the Duty Biochemist office. The first thing to do in the morning is to vet the send away test list. We check each request to see if it suitable to send before sending it. This makes sure that the patient is getting the correct and most helpful testing.

After this, I will spend the day looking at test results and seeing what they tell me. Sometimes I will decide to add on tests to help investigate the cause of a result. Other times I will add a comment to a result to help explain the pattern of results and what tests might be helpful for the doctor to do next. Sometimes I need to investigate a result and look at patient’s notes to see what their past medical history is. This is all done on a computer. The biochemistry department measures 100s of tests and we need to know what they mean and how they fit with each other. A lot of the time we are looking for a certain pattern of results which might point towards a disease or condition.

I have a morning, lunch and afternoon break which mostly involves getting coffee and have a chat with my work friends. We are a very close team who all get on really well together. This is great because it means we can always go to each to discuss cases or ask for help if we are struggling.

The afternoon tends to be busier as this is when we get all our work from general practices (GP Surgeries or family doctors) delivered to the laboratory. In the afternoon I tend to get more questions from the scientists in the lab running the samples as they come across unusual requests or problems. We cover three hospital laboratories in the Health Board so we might also get phone calls from the scientists at our sister sites if they have any issues and try and sort them out from afar.

Hopefully the day goes fairly smoothly and we do not have too many issues! I leave the hospital lab at 5pm. I work full time most days 9am to 5pm.

Then I get to spend my evening with my family at home.