Kathy Burgoine

Worcester College 2003, Medicine

I attended my local state middle school until the age of 12 when I moved to Bedford High School for girls. Here I gained my GCSEs as well as A-levels in Physics, Maths and Chemistry.

After a gap year I attended Imperial College, London where I studied for a BSc in Chemistry. It was during this time I developed my interest in Medicine and applied to the Graduate entry Medicine course at Oxford. I matriculated in 2003 into Worcester College.

In 2007 I graduated with a BMBCh and went on to complete my Foundation Training in the Oxford deanery. Currently I am taking two years out from my training in the UK to work as a doctor with the refugees and migrants on the Thai-Burmese border. I hold the Radcliffe Medical Travelling fellowship from University College which has given me this opportunity to pursue my interest in tropical paediatrics and clinical research in the developing world. I am working at the Shoklo Malaria Research Unit looking at the epidemiology of pneumonia and malaria in children.

My mother undertook a teaching diploma, but I am the first doctor in my family.

At 18, I was still uncertain about what career path to take. I deferred my place at Imperial College to read Chemistry and decided to take a gap year. I was awarded a Short Service Limited Commission in the Army and spent the next year based in Germany managing a troop of 30 soldiers.  I completed my gap year by spending three months volunteering with Raleigh International in Namibia. This experience prompted my desire to work in the developing world. Subsequent volunteer work in India, Bolivia and Indonesia taught me how much I enjoyed working with people – especially children. The natural way to combine my love of science and working with people with my interest in development was to study Medicine.

I choose Oxford as at the time it was one of only a few universities offering graduate entry medicine. The medical degree at Oxford allows students to undertake a proportion of their Paediatric, and Obstetric and Gynaecology, training overseas at approved hospitals. I was able to undertake both a paediatric attachment and an obstetric and gynaecology attachment for one month each at Kimberley Hospital, South Africa. Both of these attachments served to increase my knowledge of health issues in the developing world and confirm my desire to work in the developing world. In particular, my experience here initiated my interest in the Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission of HIV and it taught me the importance of research to improve healthcare in such settings.

In the final year, I wanted to explore my career options further and wanted to experience paediatric surgery in the developing world. The university supported my request to spend a Special Study Module in Phnom Penh, Cambodia working for four weeks in a paediatric surgical hospital.

All medical students at Oxford are encouraged to spend their final year elective overseas to experience a different healthcare system. Before my degree I was certain I would end up working in the developing world as a clinician but I was not aware of the vast array of research opportunities that I could combine with my clinical career. During my studies at Oxford and through the Oxford Global Health Group I met many inspiring clinicians involved in research in the developing world. Their achievements and ongoing work stimulated my interest in clinical research.  I was keen to experience clinical research in the developing world for myself and with their support I was able to arrange an elective at the Shoklo Malaria Research Unit on the Thai-Burmese border. This opportunity confirmed my interest to follow a career in academic medicine. I have now been awarded the Radcliffe Medical Travelling fellowship from University College to return here to undertake my own clinical research for two years.