A doctor who works at Northwick Park Hospital has inspired more than 2,000 doctors to volunteer their time to help mentor school children.
Dr Brian Wang, who leads IN2MEDSCHOOL, a widening participation initiative designed to help children in need, launched a call for doctors to donate their time to help mentor school children with aspirations to become doctors.
The campaign focuses specifically on schools with no history of students applying to medical school, hoping to ‘open young people’s eyes to their own potential’ regardless of their social and economic circumstances.
Dr Wang, said: “A lot of school pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds probably think a career in medicine is beyond them. I’m here to tell them it isn’t.
“I couldn’t speak English when I arrived in the UK and struggled through school. There were a lot of tears and hard work but I got there in the end and the message is: so can you with the right attitude.
“I lost count of how many letters I wrote asking for work experience before my medical school interview. A surgeon eventually responded and allowed me to follow him around for a month.
“There is nothing wrong with that but is does make an assumption that a career in medicine is only open to a certain class of people. There is a lot of potentially wasted talent there and isn’t reflective of the population, especially in areas like London.”
In2MedSchool, which is currently seeking charity status, has an aim to create a network of mentors and also develop a pipeline where hospitals agree to provide meaningful work experience to school pupils wanting to study medicine.
For more information, visitin2medschool.com
