Jamie Discovered A Newfound Confidence through Generation Medics' Mentoring Programme
Jamie’s interest in health was clear from the start of the programme. He expressed his interest in working in the Gastrointestinal department and becoming a medical consultant, however, his reluctance to get involved in discussions was noticed by our mentors.
Jamie has a Gastrointestinal health condition that is challenging even for adults to come to terms with.
Prior to taking part in our mentoring programme he only had two friends who were aware of his medical condition and was socially withdrawn from his peers.
“I wanted to come to the mentoring so I could learn new things about health careers and how I can get into them”
The one-to-one sessions really helped Jamie as he had the opportunity to receive individual guidance about his future career prospects.
After a few weeks, Jamie’s teachers reported that he had begun to be more engaged in class. He reported an increase in confidence and felt able to share with a group of his peers that he had a medical condition – given that he hadn’t even shared his medical condition with his closest friends, this was a massive step forward.
As the programme continued, so did Jamie’s progress
During one of the final sessions, Jamie shared full details of his medical condition with a group of his peers. It was great to see how comfortable and confident Jamie felt in himself. He was even able to show support towards another member of the group who suffered from a different, rare medical condition.
Jamie’s key achievement was being able to open up. Prior to the programme he hadn’t even uttered the word ‘colostomy’ or ‘stoma’ in school.
His ability to access one-to-one support and a supportive community led to Jamie’s increased confidence, an attribute which will help him as he explores his future options and continues in his school career!
From there, we gathered momentum, visiting schools and colleges to share our experiences and tips about this demanding yet rewarding career path.
Alongside this, we lobbied and championed widening access at the university and employer level. We have co-produced our programmes with the support of the people we support, they identified a need for unbiased up-to-date information to be made accessible to people from all backgrounds.
Want to see our impact? Check out our success stories here