Alex Tomlin – “I want to make a difference and I really want to help people”.
- Jack Ireland
- Oct 25, 2017
- 2 min read
University of Sheffield medicine student Alex Tomlin has pointed to the passing of his Nan when he was a child as the inspiration behind why he wants to become a doctor.
The 22-year-old knew he was destined to study medicine from a young age, with the Sheffield-born fifth year student opening up on his reason why:
“I wanted to go into medicine because, when I was eight years old, my Nannan died of breast cancer.
“All my memories of Nannan, through being a child, is of her with breast cancer, her when she’s not very well, her when she was in hospital, or going to appointments. So, from a young age, I was kind of immersed into the world of hospitals and sick people.”
Losing someone so close is difficult to take, but Alex realises that this moment in life made him the man he is today:
“Even at a young age, I remember my mum taking me to see Father Christmas, like you do when you’re young. So he would say ‘what do you want for Christmas?’ and I would just say ‘I want Nan to be better’.
“At that time, I didn’t think I wanted to be a doctor but, looking back, it must have been when it all started because after that, as I got older, I started to work towards trying to become a doctor.”
Over the past five years of being a medicine student, Alex has truly felt what it’s like being a doctor, and knows firsthand some of the issues surrounding the NHS:
“The biggest thing is how stretched and how underfunded the NHS has become in a relatively short period of time. From me starting, four and a half years ago, to now, there’s been a massive difference.
“From when I was a child to working in the medical profession now, I think patients expect every problem to be solved straight away.
“You go to see your doctor and they (the patients) think they (the doctors) can solve problems in a single 10-minute appointment. They don’t realise that actually it might take a couple of visits to your GP or you might need a referral to the hospital or there will be things that we can’t solve completely.
“When I first started studying medicine I wanted to make a difference and I really wanted to help people, but I feel like now looking on the wards, I know for a fact when I start working there’s going to be things I want to do and I can’t because of the system.
“It’s well documented in the news that funding has been cut and that the NHS is struggling a lot more. This is something that, during the first year, you particularly notice because you’re not on the wards that much. But then as I’ve gone on, I have found that you can see the cracks starting to appear.”
Once Alex has sat his exams in 2018, he will graduate after five very long years at university and will become a fully-fledged doctor.
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