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The Tom Donaldson Charitable Trust: Trust Me... I Will Be a Doctor
from BSA Today Issue 5
by bsatoday
Article by Lauren Donaldson, Trustee of The Tom Donaldson Charitable Trust
‘Trust me, I will be a Doctor’ was set up in 2018 in memory of Tom Donaldson, a newly qualified doctor from Derbyshire.
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Having completed his final exams at the University of Manchester, Tom was on his elective in New Zealand when he died in February 2009 following an accident that resulted in a head injury.
Aged just 23, Tom would have helped hundreds of people as a doctor, but he did not have the chance to make that happen.
In Tom’s memory, the Trust supports other young people to achieve their dream of becoming a doctor and help the people Tom dreamed of reaching.
Specifically, we support young people from low-income backgrounds in their applications to study Medicine at university, and current students on Medicine with a Foundation Year degree programmes, by providing small grants and raising awareness of the work experience opportunities available.
Tom Donaldson
The Need
UK-based research shows that young people from disadvantaged and low-income backgrounds face major barriers when pursuing a medical degree and career. Social Mobility Commission research found that medicine is dominated by those from advantaged backgrounds: 73% of doctors are from a privileged background, where their parents have professional and managerial positions, and less than 6% are from working-class backgrounds.
Most medical students are privately educated and British Medical Association (BMA) research in 2015 found that 20% of secondary schools in the UK provided 80% of all applicants to medicine. Many disadvantaged students are therefore being prevented from reaching their potential and the demographic of the UK’s medical profession does not mirror the population it serves.
BMA and Newcastle University’s Faculty of Medical Sciences research shows that students from a low-income background struggle to get into medical school for many reasons: their schools do not offer the required A Level subjects and might not know how to, or cannot afford to, support medical school applications; students themselves do not know what voluntary or work experience is needed nor how to obtain it; their parents do not have the contacts to secure work experience; and pupils lack the resources needed to participate in work experience (for example, travel costs, buying professional attire, daily subsistence whilst on placement).
Whilst work experience does not have to be in an NHS setting, students may still be unable to meet medical school expectations of speaking to a doctor to ensure their applications are based on an informed choice.
Doctor for The Day 2019 - Widening Access to Medical School
University of Nottingham
Doctor for The Day 2019 - Widening Access to Medical School
University of Nottingham
Universities now have widening participation and outreach schemes in place to attempt to tackle these issues. While a 2009 report found that the socio-economic background of doctors between the 1980s and mid-2000s was unchanged, a 2018 article reported on the success of ’gateway‘ courses, medical degrees that start with a foundation year, designed to help students who may have faced additional barriers due to their backgrounds.
A 2015 ‘Selecting for Excellence’ report recommended that the NHS expanded the provision of work experience for students from disadvantaged backgrounds – for example, advertising work experience opportunities openly and prioritising applications from those eligible for free school meals, as well as providing reasonable travel expenses. The Trust aims to help meet this expansion on a local level and support more young people from disadvantaged backgrounds to get into medical school.
What Does the Trust Do?
In 2019, the Trust worked with the University of Nottingham’s Widening Access to Medical School (WAMS) team. WAMS is a group of University of Nottingham medical students who are passionate about helping pupils from diverse backgrounds who are interested in a career in medicine.
With the Trust’s funding, WAMS’ Schools Officers visited 2-3 schools every month in Derbyshire, Lincolnshire and Nottinghamshire – they aimed to reach those students most in need of information and practical experience to support their medical school applications.
During these visits, the Schools Officers gave presentations on applying to medical school, including the UKCAT and BMAT admissions tests, helped students with personal statements and interview preparation, and delivered clinical skills sessions, giving students an insight into the world of medicine and a talking point for medical school interviews.
WAMS organises work experience for a week at the QMC and/or City Hospital in Nottingham every July for A Level students with widening participation backgrounds. This includes a mixture of classroom-based sessions, skills teaching, and practical exposure to wards and theatres.
Derbyshire-based students are able to apply directly to the Trust for funding to cover travel and lunch expenses for the week by emailing thetomdonaldsontrust@gmail.com.
The Trust provided funding to WAMS for a ‘Doctor for The Day’ in November 2019, a 1-day event attended by 32 Year 12 students from widening participation schools. Students received an insight to the day-to-day life of a medical student and the responsibilities of a doctor from a current GP and second year medical student.
The students were also given a detailed talk about the application process by the Nottingham Medical School Director of Admissions. Furthermore, they received the opportunity to widen their skillset by engaging in a laparoscopy simulation, obstetric ultrasounds, first aid and CPR, and a surgical simulation. The students engaged in all the activities with a positive attitude and the verbal feedback received was excellent.
Tropical Medicine Module at The University of Nottingham's Malaysia Campus
Tropical Medicine Module at The University of Nottingham's Malaysia Campus
Alongside our work with WAMS, in 2019 the Trust supported a student from the University of Nottingham’s Medicine with a Foundation Year programme to travel to Malaysia to study a tropical medicine module. Foundation Year programme students come from areas in the UK that are less advantaged in terms of income, education and other factors.
The student we supported said:
We are currently working with WAMS and the University of Nottingham’s Medical School to make plans for 2020 and we hope to continue these partnerships and expand our support year on year.
Supporting the Tom Donaldson Charitable Trust
The Trust raises funds through a variety of activities and general donations. A football tournament, The TD Cup, has been held annually since 2009 in Duffield, Derbyshire, where Tom grew up. In 2018, runners participated in the London and Edinburgh marathons on behalf of the Trust and in 2019 Emmyoga (www.emmyoga.com) donated the proceeds from her yoga classes for a week.
In April 2020, Tom’s sister, Freya Donaldson, and family friend, Ali Farrell, will be running the Paris marathon, and family friend, Keith Anderson, is running the London marathon for the Trust.
To sponsor our runners or make a donation to the Trust, please visit the our JustGiving page at the link below. If you will be in London or Paris for the marathons, please look out for our runners in their purple Tom Donaldson Charitable Trust vests, sponsored by Caldera London (calderalondon.com).
Lauren Donaldson
The Tom Donaldson Charitable Trust
Lauren Donaldson is Tom’s sister and a Trustee of the Tom Donaldson Charitable Trust. She graduated from Durham University with a degree in Geography in 2008 and worked in International Development for 8 years.
Lauren has since moved into the UK education sector, working in schools for 2 years and, most recently, as a Project Leader for the mentoring charity, ReachOut UK.
