Help Abi become a doctor!

Hi everyone,

Thank you so much for visiting this page that my lovely friends, colleagues and patients have helped me to make! 

For those of you who don't know me, my name is Abi and I'm 25 years old. Over the past five years, I've been working hard to gain a competitive place at medical school to become a doctor; taking on a lot of work experience, admission exams, and reapplying over and over again. I am so happy to say that my dedication and hard work has finally paid off this year and I’ve had two offers to start a five year Medicine and Surgery degree. I’ve accepted Brighton and Sussex Medical School, and am due to embark upon five years of studying in September this year. I am very excited!!

However with tuition fees tripling in price in England a few years ago, I’m also really worried. The wonderful NHS pays for my fifth year but overall, I will need £36000 to study over the next four years. This will be my second degree which means that I will not be offered a tuition fee loan; funding is very limited; and unfortunately, I won't be able to get financial support from my family. In previous years, I had initially applied to funded graduate places but with these being so oversubscribed and competitive, I didn’t get a place. To increase my chances, I decided to apply to unfunded courses this year. Even though I will do everything I can to support myself for the next five years with all of my savings, and working as much as I can whilst studying, there will still be a shortfall in covering the substantial cost of tuition. 

I do realise that I am very fortunate in having gained a degree already and in having a supportive and kind family (shout out to my Mum, Nan and Grandad!). They have always stressed the importance of hard work, getting a good education, and caring about the welfare of others, but unfortunately they just don't have the means to support me financially. A second degree in Medicine is the only route possible to me becoming a doctor.

Since graduating in 2012 with a first class honours in Biomedical Sciences, I've volunteered with the elderly, shadowed doctors in a range of specialties, and worked full time in the NHS as a healthcare assistant on a surgical ward. For the last three and a half years I’ve worked at Barts Cancer Centre in London with patients from all over the country and world. Exposure to the reality of illness and seeing the strength of people to adapt and deal with life and death has taught me a lot both personally and professionally. Being able to maintain a person's dignity at their most vulnerable moments is humbling and working with compassionate doctors who have the knowledge and skills to give people more time, a better quality of life and hope has been very inspiring. I want to be able to make that kind of difference too.

To achieve this, I am reaching out to you to ask for your goodwill and support in any capacity that you can offer. Although I am a little embarrassed asking for acts of pure generosity, it is something that I feel I have to do, as it just isn’t foreseeable that I will be able to cover the full costs of this course alone. I want to be able to say that I tried everything possible to fulfil my ambition.

Ways you can help...

Giving words of encouragement and support

Sharing the project with anyone and everyone you know!

Donating any amount at all on this page- it all will really add up!

Friends have suggested they show their support by setting up a monthly direct debit into a savings account, much like how a charity functions. If you don't wish to give a lump sum and this might be an option, please do get in touch with me. I will of course keep you posted on here with cumulative amounts raised to be completely transparent. 100% of funds raised from this campaign will be spent on tuition fees only. 

Thank you for your time...

I know that I would be a compassionate and trustworthy doctor. I love spending time with my patients now and having worked my way up through a variety of roles, I am certain that my background and experiences will keep me grounded throughout my career.

Have a watch of the film if you haven’t already, and read on below if you’d like to learn more about my campaign.

Thank you again,
Abi



Summary of costs
As explained in my video, below is a summary of how I hope to cover my tuition fee costs myself as much as possible. I expect it will be very challenging both studying for a degree like Medicine and working a lot, but I wanted to set a realistic target on here.  I have set my earnings targets for years 1 and 2 at £6000 each in an effort to ensure that my studying to become a competent doctor isn’t affected. If I miraculously manage to raise more on here, I will still try to work as much as I can and any money left over from this fund will be donated to the clinical research fund for cancer patients at Barts.

Year 1 covered by

·         £4000 of charity grants

·         £5000 of my personal savings

Year 2 covered by

·         £3000 BSMS First Generation Scholars grant given throughout year 1

·         £6000 which I hope to earn working full time during all of my holidays and part time during term time in year 1

Year 3 covered by

·         £1000 BSMS First Generation scholars grant given throughout year 2

·         £6000 which I hope to earn working full time during all of my holidays and part time during term time in year 2

·         £1000 of my remaining personal savings

·         EXPECTED SHORTFALL= £1000

Year 4 covered by

·         £1000 BSMS First Generation Scholars grant given throughout year 3

·         I will be unable to work from year 3 onwards due to long hours working on unpaid clinical placements and studying

·         EXPECTED SHORTFALL= £8000

 

Why can’t I just take out a loan?

I’ve researched various loan options that might be available to me, spoken with the National Careers Service, and gone into banks to discuss my situation. Unfortunately, the answers I receive leave me feeling that I would be left in either a great deal of uncertainty for the next few years and/or in a very financially vulnerable situation.

There are two loan options that might be available to me; career and professional training loans (interest free until graduation) or a standard bank loan. The usual postgraduate career and development loans aren’t available to medical students as the course is longer than two years.

Since the 2008 financial crisis, many banks have cut professional training loans, leaving very few schemes available. Upon speaking with banks, they are unable to guarantee that these types of loans will be around in two to three years time when I will need to apply for them. They also have high interest rates once graduated, and I still need to pay off my student loan for my Biomedical Sciences degree, plus my student maintenance loan that I will live off for the next five years.

Other standard loans have very high interest rates and require monthly repayments whilst I am studying which I simply won’t be able to cover with a limited income.


Rewards to thank you for your generosity…

I hope that the prospect of me being able to give back to society will be enough to persuade you to help me out. If not, this is the best I have to offer right now;

Pledge up to £30 – I will be really grateful!

Pledge £30 or more – I will be really grateful and you will receive a handmade card of thanks!

Pledge £100 or more – All of the above, plus you will receive regular updates on my journey throughout medical training. Just leave your name/send me your email address via this site! If you’ve had enough of my talking and hearing from me puts you off, feel free to opt out of that part…

Pledge £1000 or more – a massive THANK YOU, all of the above and you will receive annual updates on my career as a doctor once I graduate.