Former international footballer signs up for UCLan vet course

A former international footballer has signed up for a UCLan course.

Muna Aldaaysi, who made 63 appearances for the Bahrain national team, is following her dream as she takes on a veterinary course.

She has started on a new career path after swapping a full-time office job for vet school.

The 31-year-old, who recently enrolled on to the university’s foundation entry veterinary medicine and surgery degree course, retired from football and spent four years working back home.

She discovered her passion for animals after she started volunteering at an animal shelter and looked after and rehomed stray dogs and cats.

Muna said: “Culturally in Bahrain, dogs and cats are looked at differently than they are over here. There are large numbers of stray animals roaming the streets and limited resources to look after them.

“I loved working there and soon realised sitting behind a desk doing an office job all day wasn’t for me. Working with animals and helping to make them better was what I wanted to do.”

This isn’t the only university course Muna has done as she had previously gained her BSc (Hons) in International Business at the University of Leeds, her MA in Human Resources Management at the Fox School of Business at Temple University, in Philadelphia, and her MBA at the University of Michigan.

However, she didn’t have the required scientific background to go straight on to the five-year vet programme.

She said: “I was talking to my friend about what I wanted to do and how could I train to become a vet and it was difficult without a background in science. She found UCLan’s foundation course online and it was a blessing as I knew it was just the course for me.

“It was exactly what I needed as the first year is spent learning about biology, chemistry and physics relevant to veterinary medicine, bioveterinary science and animal husbandry. If I pass the one-year course, then I move on to the full undergraduate vet course.”

Muna, who played right wing for her country between 2007 and 2014, added: “The weather here in the north of England is certainly very different to the sunshine and heat of Bahrain but I’m loving my course so far. I was very lucky to travel around the Gulf representing my country at football and I might look at joining the women’s football society next year but for now I’m fully focused on my studies.”