When final year medical students Natasha Logier and Gaautham Nathaniel applied for a Bursary grant towards their proposed project they unfortunately fell foul of the Bursary Fund rules that prevent grants when the project is a “medical elective”. When Cardiff brothers heard of this they came to the rescue and raised their own bursary of £520 to help the students with their expenses.
Natasha and Nathaniel chose to carry out a project in Ghana, West Africa, in St Dominic’s Hospital (SDH). SDH is a not for profit religious health facility which primarily offers healthcare services to the poor and needy. They decided that this would be appropriate as we they strongly wanted to experience medicine in a rural environment, in a developing country. This project gave them a platform to learn about different types of infectious diseases, to take part in medical outreach programmes and also practice and utilise our skills and knowledge that we have learnt from our time in medical school.
Natasha and Nathaniel visited the Circle to thank the brothers for their generosity and to report that they had both learnt a tremendous amount from their experiences in Ghana. From the difficulties and the challenges that the doctors face due to financial constraints of the patients, to the attitudes of the patients towards their own health and how various cultural beliefs can come in the way of providing good healthcare. They told how a huge number of patients had made a mark on then and how they will take these experiences forward with us in their future medical careers.
As a postscript, a few weeks later, the Circle were delighted to learn that Natasha and Nathaniel had married.
Natasha & Nathaniel in Ghana
Cardiff Immediate Past President Bernard Hayward and President Bernard Adshead
present Nathaniel & Natasha with their awards
cardiff catenians 