Working in Hull

(published July 2023)

After completing my A levels, at a school in East Yorkshire, I moved to Bristol where I read Biochemistry and stayed to undertake a PhD in Molecular Biology.

I reached a career hiatus after my PhD. At the time my mum was a teacher at a secondary school in Hull, which had funding for a place on a graduate teaching program, nobody had applied and they were about to lose the funding. I applied and completed the course and taught as a Science teacher for a year in Hull. I moved with my partner to Oxford and taught a further two years at Didcot Girls’ School. I moved again for my partner’s job, and spent two further years teaching at an independent Girls School in Wimbledon.

Many of my A level students were applying to medicine and I shared with them that if I had my time again, I would do the same.

On reflection of their questions about why this path was impossible, I decided to change career.  I left my role as a teacher and I went to King's College in London where I completed an accelerated graduate professional entry course, and completed my medical degree in four years.

I undertook an academic foundation job and remained in London for my core training.  For my registrar training, I had enough of city life and wanted to move to somewhere more rural. Because of my PhD and teaching experience, I scored highly on my registrar application and could work at the location of my choice. I chose to work in the East and West Yorkshire Deanery.

I'm am passionate about this area of the country and honestly feel it is one of the best places to live, it's still small enough to move around easily, it doesn’t have some of the issues associated with big cities in terms of crime etc.

Hull and its surroundings has many things to offer but I work with many people new to the area who don’t realise this.  There are beaches, market towns, lovely restaurants and great walking areas such as the Wolds. Housing is more affordable, and there are good state and private schools.

From a career perspective, I recognise that training is important and understand that sometimes there can be variances in quality. We must be attractive, for all specialities. Haematology requires you to complete a large number of exams and the individual is responsible for paying for them. Some of the rural posts can have small haematology numbers but in the advent of online teaching, this can be easily addressed by the bigger regional centres.

I don't think I would have had a richer experience of haematology training elsewhere. With the subspecialties such as transplant and paediatrics, I rotated to Leeds. We have staff who go to Sheffield for this, for 2 days a week, for example, rather than move entirely for the rotation.  We are good at providing a more bespoke training program.

We now cover North Lincolnshire and Goole as well as the surrounding areas of Hull.  We have a lot of patients who came from abroad and study at Hull University so we have a growing number of patients with Haemoglobinopathies. To me, we have as varied case mix as you’d need to achieve your training in haematology

Many students who study medicine in Hull and York Medical school choose Hull as a place to work, as they have realised over their time here, the many benefits this region brings to them and their families.

I am looking forward to the next phase of my career as a Consultant Haematologist in Hull who feels passionate about training and education of all grade students who work in Hull and like me may choose to stay.