Profile
Katie McDonald
My CV
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Education:
I went to Alva Academy (small comprehensive in central Scotland) and then Glasgow University, graduated 2008
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Qualifications:
Medical degree, postgraduate certificate in surgical sciences, Highers in English, Maths, and all three sciences at school.
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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)
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Current Job:
Pathologist
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Read more
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 🙂
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My Typical Day:
Mainly spent at the microscope, looking at cells stained different colours
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Read more
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.
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What I'd do with the prize money:
A picture quiz for schools
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My Interview
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How would you describe yourself in 3 words?
Interested in everything.
Were you ever in trouble at school?
No, but I probably should have been. I got away with a lot because I’d always finished my work before distracting everyone else :)
Who is your favourite singer or band?
Too hard to choose! I like lots of types of music. Today I’ve listened to Guns n Roses, Francois and the Atlas Mountains and the Prodigy.
If you had 3 wishes for yourself what would they be? - be honest!
1. To clone myself several times so I could have enough time to travel the world properly. 2. To be able to speak every language (I can only do English, French and a tiny bit of Spanish right now) 3. To get better at rock climbing!
Tell us a joke.
David Cameron is Prime Minister.
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