A student from the University of Central Lancashire (UCLan) has received a fully funded medical scholarship.
Sumayyah Atcha, 18, was awarded the Livesey Scholarship, which aims to get more people from under-represented backgrounds into university and provides advice, skills and support to students.
She was inspired to study medicine the surgeons who operated on her sister’s spina bifida, after seeing the care they provided during hospital visits.
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Sumayyah said: “Visiting the hospital to see my sister and living with my late grandparents, allowed me to interact and see different teams and their roles leading to a speciality that particularly struck an interest, surgery.
“The ability of the surgeons to intricately repair the spine of my sister and limit nerve damage is something that has stuck by me since the age of eleven and is a continuing driving force even whilst in medical school.”
Sumayyah is in the first year of her five-year degree, with the scholarship fully covering the tuition fees at the university and also providing a student mentor to support her studies.
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She enrolled on the Livesey medicine pathway whilst at Runshaw College in Leyland and impressed the board with an essay about her sister’s condition.
She added: “The financial consequences of studying degrees can be substantial for low-income families, especially those that are lengthy and can factor in and compromise whether they choose to study in a particular area that they have continuously worked for.
“I know that was the case for me and can be for so many others so the fact that the medical school can fund and offer supplementary support to those who need it is something I will be eternally grateful for.”
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