Four healthcare professionals, all former pupils of Bolton School Girls’ Division, returned to their alma mater to virtually deliver the latest in a series of Perspectives lectures. The insightful presentation drew on the speakers’ varied and extensive experience and focused on the opportunities and challenges available to those considering a career in the health sector.
Heather Henry (Class of 1979), who became a Queen’s Nurse nine years ago, opened the evening, describing herself as a health and social entrepreneur, an innovator, a health policy influencer and published writer. Looking back on her school days, she admitted to not excelling academically but told how, over the years, she had become a self-directed learner. She did say, however, that she came away from Bolton School with some great friendships and memories and went on to explain how, after her A levels, she started training as a nurse at Manchester Royal Infirmary. She told how she worked her way up to board level before deciding to start her own business and training to work in partnership with communities to tackle health inequalities.
The audience learnt that Heather is the former chair of New NHS Alliance, now The Health Creation Alliance CIC, a national membership body promoting wellbeing and is a current trustee of Being There, a Greater Manchester charity supporting people with life limiting illness. She explained how she practises a social model of public health, inventing and co-producing solutions with local people and how, based on her own severe asthma as a child, her latest innovation, a company called BreathChamps, is offering a post-pandemic, holistic, breathless recovery programme across Trafford.
The audience was also informed how, as a result of her partnership work with severe and multiply-disadvantaged fathers in Salford, Heather won the Sue Pembrey Award for Person and Community-centred Nursing Care and that she had also received the Open University Business School Alumnus Award for her 'Outstanding Contribution to Society'.
Considering the question of why young people should consider a career in nursing, Heather told how it is a job for life, it gives you transferable skills, a decent pension, allows you to help other people and, in doing so, yourself! She also spoke about the eight different paths into nursing. The whole sector, she said, is a land of opportunity and, right now, even though – and perhaps because - it is on the verge of chaos, it is a good place to innovate!
Heather concluded her talk by saying that she would like to see more focus on prevention and well-being in the community and asked the question of how can we care with, and not just for, our communities?
Sheila Fisher (Class of 1970), we learnt, had enjoyed several medical careers. She described herself as being ‘another scholarship girl’ and of initially being quite shy and retiring. Her first degree, she said, was in Dentistry and, if she was honest, at the time, she probably had a slight fear of Medicine. However, Sheila pushed herself, saying that a Bolton School education had taught her that ‘we can do anything if we have the determination and energy.’ Sheila went on to graduate with degrees in Dentistry and Medicine, and told how she undertook surgical training which led to membership of the Fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons and then, beyond that, higher surgical training. In doing so, she became the first woman to become a Consultant Maxillofacial Surgeon.
She advised the audience to be ready for their career to evolve and that it is good to reinvent yourself every few years. After ‘ten wonderful years’ as a Surgeon in Nottingham and later as a Senior Lecturer at the University of Leeds, and suffering from inflammatory arthritis, she revealed how she became a Medical Researcher. Her main interest, she said, had been in face and jaw cancer trauma surgery. She also explained how she had loved training surgeons and health professionals and had been an Examiner at the Royal College of Surgeons of England. She had also enjoyed having national involvement in areas of clinical research, governance and medical ethics and in the innovation and regulation of medical devices. Besides her career, Sheila spoke of family being important to her and of raising two boys who are now pursuing careers in the army. The audience also learnt how she had enjoyed being a Governor of Bolton School from 1984-2022.
Sheila told how, in recent years, she had become a Medical Supervisor in the Covid Vaccination Service, a Hospice trustee and a Licensed Lay Minister, engaging with people about their well-being in later life. Her advice to pupils was that if you are given the opportunity of doing something new in life, then go for it!
The audience then heard from Thorrun Govind (Class of 2010) who told how she had attended Bolton School from Infant School to Sixth Form before reading for a degree in Pharmacy at King's College, London and completing her pharmacy pre-registration training in 2016. Thorrun advised that studying for a career in healthcare is not easy and that it will definitely push you, but that you will build up resilience along the way. She recommended a career in the NHS, saying it is extremely rewarding, allowing you to develop all sorts of skills and enabling you to move around - both within the sector and across the country. She said, for her, the best bit of working in a pharmacy is that it means you to get to know local people as you deliver continuity of care.
Thorrun described herself as having a ‘portfolio career’ having gone on to study for her Graduate Diploma in Law, while still working as a pharmacist. She told how she subsequently studied for her Legal Practice course and for an MSc in Law, Business and Management before joining joining the healthcare law firm, Hempsons, in 2019, where she completed her training contract to become a solicitor working in a healthcare advisory role. This means, she explained, she is currently a practising pharmacist and a practising solicitor and that she is often involved with inquest work. The audience also learnt that she is now Chair of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society in England, having earlier become its youngest ever elected board member and that, in 2018, she was named 'Young Pharmacist of the Year' by Pharmacy Business Magazine and awarded a 'Pharmacy Champion' Award by Greater Manchester Local Practice Network.
Thorrun told how, whilst in the Sixth Form at Bolton School, she undertook a lot of work in the media and how, later in life, this gave her confidence to become an advocate for pharmacy and to lending her voice to a number of causes, including campaigning with Davina McCall and Penny Lancaster on reducing prescription charges for women undergoing the menopause. Her work, she said, had seen her appear on BBC Newsnight and Sky News.
Susannah Penney (Class of 1993) introduced herself as a Consultant Head, Neck and Thyroid Surgeon at the University of Manchester’s NHS Foundation Trust (MFT). She told how she was a Manchester University graduate and how she had completed her otolaryngology training in the North-West of England. As part of her training, she said, she was awarded a prestigious national head and neck training fellowship at the Freeman Hospital, Newcastle-upon-Tyne.
Recapping her time at Bolton School, where she studied from age 8 to 18, she recalled being quite studious but unsure about her future career. Her mother had suggested Law or Medicine and, consequently, work experience had been arranged at Bolton Royal Infirmary. Witnessing an operation there was life-changing. Like Sheila, Susannah said she was also something of a trailblazer, being the only female surgical trainee at Bolton Hospital, where she took a shine to Orthopaedic Surgery and Ear, Neck and Throat (ENT) work and, later, became the first female Consultant at the Manchester Royal Infirmary.
Susannah told how there is a wide range of roles in the NHS and something for every personality type. Her advice was that whatever skill you have, sculpt it towards a job that suits you. She said you would need resilience for certain jobs, compassion for others, selflessness for some positions or perhaps an ability to thinking differently and certainly a work ethic for all roles.
Susannah revealed how she was appointed as a Consultant in 2012 at MFT, where she also provided outreach cancer care to patients at Tameside Hospital and then how, four years later, she became lead cancer clinician for Tameside Hospital where, working as part of the cancer services team, she drove forward the standard of care for all cancer patients within the locality. At the same time, she was appointed to the post of Pathway Director for Head and Neck Cancer within the Greater Manchester (GM) Cancer organisation, which meant leading a team of people from across the region to ensure high standards of care for all head and neck cancer patients.
The audience learnt how, in 2018 she was promoted to Associate Medical Director at GM Cancer and is now leading on several projects to ensure that anyone who is suspected of, or who has, cancer receives timely, high-quality care, no matter where they present in the region. Within MFT she holds responsibility for the Head and Neck Service Unit and its integration across all hospitals – ensuring equity of access and an ambition for world-class clinical care. Commenting on her leadership roles, she said she finds them rewarding as they allow her to change more than one life at a time.
The evening concluded with the panellists fielding a number of questions, including what is the most common route into nursing, how did you move from Pharmacy to Law, how do you get work experience in the healthcare sector, what is the best thing about working in the NHS and what one piece of advice would you give to a student? On behalf of the audience, Year 13 student Millie Price, who hopes to study Dentistry, thanked the speakers.
The evening Perspectives lectures have been taking place at Bolton School for two years and have proved popular with students and the local community. You can register to attend future talks here.
