Help me go to Ghana!

Two and a half years ago, with the support of my amazing husband and children, I embarked on a life-changing journey to make my childhood dream come true.

From as early as I can remember I wanted to be a Paramedic, however, difficulties at school and leaving college prematurely meant that I lost the opportunity and then got distracted for 25 years in the corporate world which meant that I turned 40 and was no closer to having my dream job.

During the last decade, my husband and I have faced extreme adversity. I spent a year fighting breast cancer to only be faced almost immediately with the terrible process of losing my beautiful stepdaughter to brain cancer. These experiences, gradually hating my corporate career more and more and finally, the impact of covid prompted me to completely rethink my life and where I wanted to be. I wanted to make a difference and help people!

So, In September 2020 I started an Access course to prepare and qualify for university, applying for and getting into the University of East Anglia and in September 2021 I started my degree and had a rude awakening! Theory, skills, practice, ethics, legalities, mental capacity and placement hours and I am privileged to be a part of an amazing cohort full of bright and driven young people and I have loved every minute.

I am now almost at the end of the second year of my degree, and we are planning our elective placement for the start of the third year. So long as we can relate the experience to our practice as Paramedics, it is within our gift to spend that placement time being where we want to be.

I chose Ghana.

This is an unmissable opportunity to experience a healthcare system in a developing country. Learning about different approaches to medical treatment as well as getting exposure to illnesses and diseases I am not likely to see in my day-to-day practice. I am looking forward to developing my language and communication skills, working in teams in hospitals and areas where there is no such thing as primary or pre-hospital care and contributing to the local challenges faced by them every day. Not only will this help me to be a better clinician, but it will also help me to appreciate the NHS even more than I do now when I return!

I decided to use a company called Work the World. They craft healthcare electives around the world tailored to each student's interests. They take their social responsibility very seriously and understand the ethical obligation to maximise the benefits of their placements and to ensure they have is no negative impact locally, which is important to me. They also employ local people instead of ex-pats, purchase products and food from the communities in which they're based, and give sizeable monetary and equipment donations to local hospitals. So they are a good choice to ensure that my placement is full of learning and experience without the stress of trying to organise this myself.

But it’s expensive and I’m a poor student now. I’m incredibly fortunate to have both the moral and financial support of my husband, but to do this I’ll need to spend approximately £5,000 on scrubs, accommodation, flights, vaccinations, insurance and visas, which we just don’t have. So, I’m hoping to raise some of that £5,000 with the help of you wonderful people. I realise there is a cost-of-living crisis at the moment, and it also makes me really uncomfortable asking for help, but I would be enormously appreciative if you could spare a few pennies (or pounds) to help me to turn my dream of helping people at their most vulnerable (and getting paid very little for the privilege) into a reality.

Thank you, from the bottom of my heart for any help you can provide ❤️