Dr Manyar is a Core Surgical Trainee in Chichester. She got a degree in physiology and pharmacology at King’s College London, but decided she wanted to pursue a career in medicine where she could continue to have patient contact, and so applied and was accepted for a second degree at King’s, in medicine.
“Taking medicine as a second degree had a lot of benefits. Coming from a different degree, you have that basis of academic learning at a university level, so you’re able to jump into things a little bit easier. It is hard work, and there is a lot to learn in medical school, and, despite what people say, it’s just not the same in terms of the sheer volume of learning that you need to do.
Coming in as slightly older than most other people and not being straight from school is a little more difficult in terms of the social aspect. It’s a bit harder to build those relationships that will see you through medical school and into your career. At King’s, there were so many of us that were older or coming from doing a different degree that it didn’t really make that much of a difference, but in other places where second degree students are the minority, I can see it could be harder.”
As Medicine was a second degree, Dr Manyar didn’t qualify for a tuition fee loan. She applied for and received Barbers’ Company grants via BMA Charities in 2015 and 2016 to assist with her medical school costs.
"Receiving the grants from BMA Charities to help with paying for my second degree was a huge help because it was quite a substantial amount of money at the time. I was able to use it to add to the savings that I’d managed to collect throughout the year."
“I was working throughout my first degree and into my second, a combination of tutoring and working in retail at the weekends. I kept it going until my 4th year, at which point because of final exams and so on, I had to stop. Because I was studying Medicine as a second degree, I didn’t get the student loan, so I was trying to find other ways to help pay for the tuition fees. I looked online for potential sources of funding, bursaries, etc. and came across BMA Charities. I thought I’d give it a go; I applied and was successful.
Receiving the grants from BMA Charities to help with paying for my second degree was a huge help because it was quite a substantial amount of money at the time. I was able to use it to add to the savings that I’d managed to collect throughout the year. It offered peace of mind, because I knew through the grant and my job, I could afford the tuition fees.”
Dr Manyar’s degree in Medicine was only the beginning of her journey to becoming an orthopaedic surgeon.
“Surgical training is quite long. After you’ve completed your foundation training you apply as a core surgical trainee which is two years, and you work in different departments in surgery. At the end of your second year, you apply for your sub-specialty, there’s lots of different things you can consider. It's a national programme and you apply for the jobs you want then rank the jobs across the country. You get given the job that’s the closest to what you wanted, then it takes five or six years of training before you start thinking about consultancy jobs. I’m hoping to apply to orthopaedics this time next year and go back to Surrey where I did my foundation training.”
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