Medics Montage

We had the pleasure of catching up with three OGs whose career paths in medicine have taken them all on very different journeys…

Kate (Kathleen) Meyer (HA 2009)

Kate studied chemistry, biology and geography at A-level with an AS-level in design technology and initially thought she would study occupational therapy. However, after attending a few open days she realised it wasn’t quite what she wanted to do and she chose to study medicine at Brighton and Sussex Medical School as an International student instead. Kate’s year was only the 5th cohort for what was, at the time, the smallest medical school in the country - there were only 140 people in each year so she was able to get to know her year and the year above quite easily. She has high praise for the School and says they were always open and responsive to feedback.

Kate left with her degree in medicine and went on to do her F1 (Foundation) year in Worthing working in urology, diabetes and geriatrics. Her second year (F2) was at St Helier in London and her rotations included paediatrics, A&E and intensive care.

After this Kate opted for a year out and worked in refugee camps in Greece and in a rural hospital in South Africa (her parents are from South Africa). Kate found it to be a tough placement as the hospital was severely under-resourced and there was little guidance for a junior doctor. It did however have its positives and seeing elephants on the way into work every day is one of Kate’s favourite memories!

Back in the UK, Kate spent the next two years at Charing Cross hospital, London, working in anaesthetics and intensive care before she moved to the Chelsea and Westminster hospital in 2019. It was here that Kate was working as a Junior Registrar when the pandemic first started and she was called out of paediatrics to help with adult COVID cases. This was followed by a promotion to Senior Registrar at Northwick Park, which was the epi-centre for COVID cases at the time and frequently in the BBC news with headlines such as Coronavirus: The London hospital hit by a ‘tidal wave’ of patients. Kate recalls this as being the most impactful time of her career to date as it was exhausting and emotional. Families were unable to be with their loved ones and having to give them updates over the phone was difficult, particularly as little was known about COVID to begin with. Kate really felt this particular job gave her a huge amount of experience and improved her confidence and personal growth as a doctor.

Now Kate has returned to Chelsea and Westminster and is taking another year out of training to work in paediatric A&E, whilst studying for her post-graduate certificate in clinical education. She feels work is manageable now from a COVID point of view but still ridiculously busy as they are helping to deal with cases that were put ‘on hold’ during the pandemic. There’s also the added pressure of children’s immune systems playing catch up due to so much time in isolation.

With so much going on professionally, you could be forgiven for thinking Kate doesn’t have much spare time for anything else but she is currently planning to marry her partner (an oncology doctor) in South Africa early next year! Congratulations to both of you and thank you Kate. ■

Georgina Edmonds (CG/Blore House 1976)

Georgina left St Swithun’s shortly after beginning her A-levels as she wanted to work with horses and managed to convince her father it was a good idea! She had a wonderful time eventing and continued for a while after her father had passed away until she made the adventurous decision to head off to Kenya.

It was there for seven years that Georgina lived in mud and wattle huts with an elephant’s jawbone to sit on for the latrine, in a camp in the African bush. She worked alongside the famous George Adamson MBE, the wildlife conservationist and author depicted in the book and film Born Free. Whilst she was there, Georgina was responsible for a wide variety of jobs such as, supply trips to Nairobi, answering fan mail, bottle feeding abandoned lion cubs and looking for lions with George for the many visitors they had to camp. It was a very happy time for Georgina. Once a year she used to come back to England to visit her mother. It was during one of these return visits that Georgina shockingly learned that George had been murdered by bandits and sadly that chapter of her life came to an unexpected close.

Georgina decided to train as a nurse at the Royal Free hospital in London where she specialised in tropical nursing and soon she went back to Kenya. To register as a nurse there and before she could have her own clinic, Georgina had to also become a midwife and trained at Nakuru provincial hospital to achieve this. Alongside this, she also worked in private nursing jobs dealing with a variety of situations from burns to family planning and crocodile attacks!

Georgina was later offered a job in Keew, South Sudan where there were no cars, phones or laptops and they relied on an old radio for communication with their base in Nairobi in case they had to coordinate an evacuation. Drinking water was flown in every fortnight (weather conditions permitting) and water for showering came from a swamp over a mile away from camp and was filtered and treated with alum. It was an area contaminated by Guinea worm and there were also plenty of snakes and scorpions. Georgina tried to help local dogs too, with a rabies vaccination program and first aid. She remember them following her around like the Pied Piper! Later Georgina worked in Rumbek, which was an SPLA (Sudan People’s Liberation Army) stronghold, in a big clinic with a TB and leprosy program. She trained a handful of local people to carry out basic diagnostic tests like blood grouping and malaria etc. After that she went to Juba, where she used an old motorbike to get around and ran her own clinic with the luxury of a helicopter on standby for medevac.

In January 2008, Georgina received yet further shocking news when she heard her mother had been murdered at home in Hampshire. She came back to England to be with her family and deal with the investigation and court case which took many years. She made the decision to stay in the UK and worked in a hospital in Brighton on the gynaecology ward, thoroughly enjoying the role and working with her talented colleagues.

Now Georgina has settled in West Sussex and works as a community nurse on twilight and overnight shifts. She visits patients at home and in residential homes to help them with emergency situations and palliative care – a very varied role which means she never quite knows what will crop up next. Thank you Georgina for all you do. ■

Grace Ding (ED 1982)

Grace left St Swithun’s in 1982 with 5 A-levels and went on to study at Southampton Medical School. After graduating she did her house jobs in Southampton and in Lymington. This was in the days when Lymington was still a cottage hospital and Grace was very much ‘in at the deep end’ where weekend shifts could last 84 hours with no guaranteed sleep or meal times. “The years in St Swithun’s taught me the discipline and the resilience necessary to work as a medic.”

After a stint in A&E, Grace completed her 3 year GP rotation which included a year in a GP surgery in Romsey. She passed her membership exam for the Royal College of General Practitioners in 1991 and has worked as a GP ever since. “My heart was always in General Practice. My father was a GP in Hong Kong and I have always liked

Grace wearing her Pringles lid medal

the variety and continuity that General Practice provides.”

Now based in Oxfordshire with her husband, a Consultant Cardiologist, she has made the choice to work part-time. She feels the current workload of a full-time GP is not conducive to good mental health, particularly given the last 18 months and COVID. “Despite the pressures, I have always felt privileged to work in the NHS where, unlike most other countries in the world, I can practise without the financial constraints of private medicine.”

The pandemic was one of the most significant periods in Grace’s career. She witnessed the rapid spread of the infection amongst patients and staff, especially in the care home population during the first wave. As the lead research GP in her practice, she was able to take part in rapidly evolving COVID research such as the PRINCIPLE trial and antibodies studies. “The vaccine was a miracle. There was a real Dunkirk spirit amongst GPs when the roll-out began.” Grace felt strongly that her practice should step up and she, like many others, volunteered to administer it in her free time. A contact of Grace’s husband was also able to help out and kindly re-tasked his factory workers from making aircraft seats to making long sleeve gowns for PPE. What’s more, they did it for free.

These acts of kindness were appreciated by us as a nation and also as individuals. After one clapping session on a Thursday night, the young daughter of Grace’s neighbour posted something special through her letterbox. It was a medal for Grace made out of a Pringles lid - an example of how much we all value the efforts made by Grace and all our NHS workers. ■