Aspiring doctor Morgan accepted for five-year scholarship with UCLan
A budding doctor from Cumbria has scooped a prestigious five-year scholarship with the University of Central Lancashire (UCLan).
Morgan Irving has been offered the chance of a lifetime through the Dr Kate Granger Scholarship, which was established to honour the memory of a doctor who campaigned for better patient care while suffering from terminal cancer. Set up specifically for Cumbrian students, it covers all tuition fees for the duration of the five-year programme.
Through the scholarship Morgan, from Whitehaven, will study for a MBBS Bachelor Medicine Bachelor Surgery degree at UCLan and she is hopeful it will now be a big step forward in her long-term ambition to become a doctor.
"The Dr Kate Granger Scholarship is an incredible tribute to a woman who was monumental to the opening of the medical school, and in the development of a patient-centred NHS"
The Dr Kate Granger Scholarship is one of two medical degree scholarships offer by the University aimed at students from Cumbria and East Lancashire whose circumstances mean they are unlikely to study medicine despite being academically capable, in order to promote social mobility and widen participation.
Working with North Cumbria Integrated Care NHS Foundation Trust and East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust (ELHT), the University established the scholarships as part of a wider, long-term UCLan strategy to attract and retain local doctors to NHS employment in the region, considering the issues both Lancashire and Cumbria have faced around attracting and retaining health professionals.
Previously Morgan had studied for a degree in Psychology with a Professional Placement Year at Newcastle University. However learning she had won the Kate Granger scholarship came as a complete surprise to her.
Morgan, 23, said: “I actually found out I had been awarded the scholarship the day after my graduation for my previous degree so it was a complete shock for me.
"I am really overjoyed to be given this opportunity to fulfil my life-long ambition of becoming a doctor. The Dr Kate Granger Scholarship is an incredible tribute to a woman who was monumental to the opening of the medical school, and in the development of a patient-centred NHS. It is an honour and a privilege to have been awarded this scholarship in her name. I was, and continue to be, very grateful for the opportunity I have been given.”
Morgan says the scholarship has given her the perfect incentive to now follow her dreams and work hopefully as a paediatric doctor within the NHS.
She added: "Though I have a few years of hard studying to go, I look forward to working as a doctor in the NHS. I am thoroughly enjoying the material being taught in this first year of study, and so committing to a speciality so soon is quite difficult.
“I have always enjoyed working with children and so I aim to work in Paediatric Medicine. I look forward to learning more about this, and other fields of medicine, in the coming years.”