The face of 32000 students
Kirsty Lloyd trained professionally as a dancer
for 10 years, starting at the age of 11. Now aged 32, she’s
an intercalating medical student at Leicester University and head
of the BMA’s Medical Students Committee, representing the
United Kingdom’s 32000 medical students. Nadeeja Koralage finds
out how she got there
Did you always want to study medicine?
No, dance used to be my life. I did my first
degree at the London Contemporary Dance School. After this, I was
an independent, contemporary dancer. I would audition for jobs, and
sometimes got them, or sometimes not.
How did you get interested in health care?
While doing my first degree at the London
Contemporary Dance School, I decided to focus my dissertation on
knee injuries among dancers. As a dancer, I was always interested
in the mechanism of my injuries.
Then, my supervisor invited me to help out at
the International Association of Dance, Medicine and Science. I
listened to the talks, and found it unbelievably inspiring. It made
me sit up and listen.
Working in the allied health professions was
looking increasingly attractive. I did my research and talked to as
many people who worked in these areas as possible—apart from
the doctors, that is. It was actually this group of people that I
found too scary.
But when I did look into medicine, I realised
that it was this profession that would put me in the best position
to help dancers once I had qualified. They had the most power when
it came to time and money spent on research on dance injuries.
At night school, I was told that it was a very
competitive and difficult area to enter. But being a dancer,
neither of these things put me off. I started an access to medicine
course at the College of West Anglia, a course that prepared mature
students for a medical degree.
A strong element of the course was study skills
and techniques to make getting back into education smoother. I
actually got my place on the access to medicine course three years
before I began the course, as I needed to work during this time to
clear my debt.
How difficult was it to leave dance?
I don’t think you ever let go of dance. I
still remember the day when I was sitting in my room and I realised
I wasn’t going to be a dancer. In fact, it makes me feel
funny talking about it now. In certain professions, your job is
central to your identity. I think this is very much the case with
dancing and medicine.
It’s hard not to see yourself as a
performer, when that’s what you’ve been all your life.
Have you noticed any similarities between
dance and medicine?
They are both vocational training programmes,
but even once you’ve left university or college, you are
still learning and developing your skills. Dancers are in the
studio or theatre every day striving for perfection, and doctors
tackle different problems daily. And one of my friends has
suggested that there may have been a tradition of ritual
humiliation in both professions. There are lots of skills that I
developed in my previous life that help me in medicine.
If you could do it all again, would you go
straight into medicine?
Even though my life has changed direction
dramatically, I don’t regret anything that I’ve done.
I’ve made the most of opportunities I’ve had and have
created new ones. There’s no way I would have become a
medical student straight from school. I just didn’t have that
kind of background, and didn’t know a single person who went
into medicine.
What made you become a representative?
I’m in medical student politics because
I’m passionate about the world in which we study, our
education, and what it will be like for us when we start to work.
I started off as a student representative and
was very impressed by the topics discussed by the Medical
Students’ Committee, the students’ division of the BMA.
Here, I found that medical students were involved in central
government decisions and planning our future as doctors.
Many medical students don’t find
Modernising Medical Careers [www.mmc.nhs.uk] interesting. They want
to do a good job, but they find politics boring. But it’s
easy for me. I’m genuinely passionate about these things.
But being a student representative is a
difficult job. You have to stick your neck out for what the
students want you to say, even if you may not agree. You
can’t possibly talk to every single student in your medical
school, but it’s important to try to talk to as many as you
can, and make yourself as accessible as possible.
What are you working on at the moment?
As medical schools start charging students more
and more money to attend, they are becoming increasingly
accountable to them. And student debt is a massive issue. I have to
say that, as I’m in a huge amount of debt. I know I
wouldn’t be able to study medicine if I had to pay
upfront fees.
Widening access is another very important
issue. This involves reaching students whose families may not be
from backgrounds of education. We need to inform school leavers
about the options open to them. We also need to educate and support
their families, and educate their teachers.
Do you still have time to perform?
I’ve joined the university theatre and
dance society and recently went back on stage for the first time in
five years. Your body changes so much in that time. You know what
you used to be able to do, and this high ideal in your mind is very
different to what you can do now. But I had a great time, and even
managed a few solos.
Nadeeja Koralage, final year medical student, Royal Free and University College London
Email: nadeeja@gmail.com
studentBMJ 2006;14:1-44 January ISSN 0966-6494
