Help medical student continue with her studies

I am Greta, a Lancaster University medical student working as a frontline NHS healthcare worker on COVID-19 wards. I set up this fundraiser following lockdown because the people who kindly supported my studies have, like many others, been affected by the Corona economic crisis. 

I have been working tirelessly for the past 5 months since my University’s closure due to pandemic in an effort to save up money for my tuition fees. I have managed to save up 3700£ through working and 1808£ through this fundraising page, therefore I am still in need of £3692to cover the cost of £9250 for my University tuition fees for the academic year starting this September. I have exhausted all the scholarships and I am not eligible for a student loan.

Know that any donation, however small or big, will support someone who has been fully committed to medicine and the NHS, determined to dedicate her life to treating patients. 

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Following the closure of my university due to pandemic over a month ago, I have made a decision to move to London and work on COVID-19 wards in the country’s most affected area. I have been taking care of patients as an NHS (National Health Service) healthcare assistant since I moved to England in 2015. This time it is very different. You put on layers of plastic PPE (Personal Protective Equipment) before entering the ‘Covid Zone’.  By the time you enter you are already sweating and the mask is tight around your head cutting through the skin on your cheeks. You hope you packed enough of everything needed to change the patients and their beds. You don't want to go through the dressing procedure again. You enter a room with six patients, all of whom are on ventilators. There is no chatter, just the constant beeping of monitors. The work here is manual. You start with a man who has been, due to insufficient breathing capacity, positioned on his front. Together with his nurse you give him personal care, change sheets under him and reposition his stiff body to avoid pressure ulcers. He doesn’t talk, but you are constantly looking for any signs of discomfort. You read about COVID-19 in the newspapers but suddenly when you see the individual patients it feels even more surreal.

I feel privileged to be one of the medical students who are making a small contribution to fighting this pandemic, but nothing could prepare me for how hard it is to watch these people in pain, in some cases unexpectedly dying, and wishing it wasn’t happening to them. I leave the hospital after a 12 hour shift with a strange anxiety. Conscious of my presence, I hop on my bike to avoid being a risk on public transport. I cycle to my friend’s vacant house where I’ve been self-isolating even though it makes my commute longer. I have made a decision to move away from my family to minimise the risk of becoming a spreader myself. Even though I am not yet qualified, with such a shortage of staff and high proportion being at risk from the virus, I feel the need to help as much as I can. 

Studying medicine has been my dream since I was less than ten years old. Little did I know then that years later it would be the NHS that would turn my ambition into a calling that will most likely define the rest of my life.
My life started to change direction at 15, when I got the opportunity to become a Rotary International Exchange Student to Moline, Illinois (US). Coming from a small Eastern-European town, the year abroad really broadened my horizons. I will be forever grateful to Rotary and the exchange programme for providing me with the springboard to achieving my dream to study medicine at a university in the UK. The motto of ‘Service Above Self’ is one I have decided to really live by and it has defined who I am becoming. 

My first exposure to the UK healthcare system was thanks to my sister who managed to cleverly secure an internship for me during her appointment at Royal London Hospital. One would assume that you wouldn’t have time to discuss your sister’s career path during a 7-minute doctor’s consultation, but I guess you can’t suppress the Eastern European genes. Weeks later, I started my work experience in NHS and it was incredible. I was in awe of the whole NHS team (from support workers to consultants) pulling together in a stressful environment while treating patients with such genuine care and compassion. I was touched by how medicine is taught here, raising the next generation of doctors to not only be academically skilled but also in equal measure compassionate and well-rounded people serving the society. It was clear to me that I wanted to study medicine in the UK even if the majority of my teachers would actively discourage me from even applying. After all, no one has ever managed to secure a place for medicine in the UK in the history of my, modest but extremely academic, grammar school.

Perhaps as expected, I didn’t get into medicine in the UK initially. My Slovak A-level equivalents (in which I achieved the highest possible marks) weren’t approved. Instead, I accepted an offer to study Biomedical Sciences at the University of Bath with the aim to apply for medicine as my second degree. It was my motivation to work even harder and I graduated with a First Class Honours degree, humbled to be amongst the very top of my year. My weekends and summers were filled with caring for patients in my first NHS job in psychiatric hospitals in Somerset, UK.

Last year, I got into the Lancaster Medical School and became the first person with my Slovak qualifications to study medicine in the UK. I feel so grateful as I love every second of it and I often find myself secretly self-isolating with an anatomy textbook. And I guess I also can’t hide being a nerd in my exam results.

I aspire to work in the NHS as a doctor one day. Unfortunately, the future of my medical degree is uncertain now as the people who have been supporting my studies are no longer able to due to Covid-19 pandemic. I am raising money for my tuition fees. I have 4 more years left which will cost me additional £37,000 excluding any living costs. As this is my second degree, I am not eligible for any student loans. Any donation, even the smallest, will support someone who has been committed to medicine and the NHS, determined to dedicate their life to treat patients. Finishing medical school will allow me to pursue my calling for no other reward than the one of healing, giving and helping others.