Profile – Organs Zone

Education:

I went to Alva Academy (small comprehensive in central Scotland) and then Glasgow University, graduated 2008
Qualifications:

Medical degree, postgraduate certificate in surgical sciences, Highers in English, Maths, and all three sciences at school.
Work History:

Elgin, Aberdeen (North of Scotland), St Georges Hospital (South London), North Middlesex Hospital (North London). All of those as a doctor, plus various rubbish jobs as a student in Glasgow (call centres, sorting letters at the Royal Mail etc)
Current Job:

Pathologist

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I cut up organs to find cancers, to help guide treatments for patients. It’s a very visual job, mainly using a microscope. Post mortems are a small part of my job too, which is the bit everyone asks about 🙂
My Typical Day:

Mainly spent at the microscope, looking at cells stained different colours
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I maybe spend an hour cutting up specimens, which can range in size from a tiny fragment of skin to a whole bowel. I get plenty of thin, glass slides showing all the cells of the organs and try to work out if there’s a cancer, how far it has spread, what treatments it will respond to etc. I also occasionally do post mortems to work out why patients have died, so their families know more about their disease and also to ensure nothing bad occurred.
What I'd do with the prize money:

A picture quiz for schools

Katie McDonald