Content warning: depression, suicide. When I was contemplating suicide in second year, I didn’t think I was allowed to go to A&E for urgent help, so I didn’t. I didn’t think I felt bad enough to call a helpline, and convinced myself they would tell me off for wasting their time if I did. I cried and isolated myself because…
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Treating or Tweeting: Mental Health Activism Must Do More
Trigger warning: mental illness, suicide. In recent decades, conversations around mental health have been transformed. The mad woman has left the attic; her face is now splashed across the front pages of tabloids, her story dramatised for soap operas and sitcoms. Madness has entered mainstream media. So the conversation has cracked open, but is discussion really helping those who need…
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May You Never
May your holy sites never be violated or disrespected May your prayers at your holy sites never by intruders be obstructed May your loved ones never receive the bullet of your oppressor May your loved ones never lose their limbs & eyes & lives because of the aggressor May you never go to sleep to the destructive bombs and their…
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Artist Spotlight: OPULENCE
by Febi Sidiku, year 5. This academic year has been especially stressful, and this is certainly not helped by the current global climate and pandemic. Making something has always been my outlet; making art has been the “something” that always stuck. Something about seeing pretty things, or seeing the pretty in things, and focusing enough to create something new from…
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More than Medical Students
by Marianne Gazet, year 5 We are all more than medical students- and it’s important to talk about it! My name is Marianne Gazet, I’m currently a fifth year medical student- but I’m also more than that! To mention a few things, I speak multiple languages, I’m interested in fashion and I was also an avid swimmer – at least…
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My First Week of Clinical Years
A diastolic murmur In the trolley being pushed; Something on its wheel, sounding like that ‘whoosh’ A desk cleared next door, or am I hearing crackles? Everything sounds medical, My ears are feeling frazzled! I’m clutching at diagnoses And trying to remember symptoms, How do I really listen if My brain is sifting systems? I ask about family history, I’m…
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Money Matters: Top Tips for Budgeting and Saving
Written by Carolina Rosa, Year 5 with an introduction by Sophia Terry The steep learning curve of financial independence hits many of us when we leave home for the first time. Suddenly thrown in at the deep end, the idea of stretching a measly student loan to cover the weekly shop, travel costs, rent and social events can seem daunting.…
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Holocaust Memorial Day
Written by Cate Goldwater Breheny Do you know when Holocaust Memorial Day is? In my experience, not many people do. Your old school may have made it the subject of an assembly, but it is otherwise often forgotten. Holocaust Memorial Day falls on the 27th of January, marking the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz concentration camp in 1945. Nearly…
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UNLIT SHADOWS
Written by Adina Smith It was around halfway through sitting the BMAT for the second time, whilst quickly calculating just how much money was earned from an unnecessarily complicated cake stall, that I started to doubt whether my decision to go to medical school over art school had actually been a sensible one. I have always had these two main…
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Imperial College London Presents: Charity Week 2020
Since the turn of the millennium, people have been uniting their efforts for a week under an annual campaign to synergistically affect change across the world based on shared Islamic, humanitarian values. Over time, the ethos of this movement, which was inaugurated at St. George’s University, was refined such that over 270 institutions are now unified under the same purpose;…
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Med School Racism: Behind the Scenes With Amber and Simi
If you have been scrolling through Instagram in recent weeks, it will have been hard to miss the growing success of Amber and Simi’s new campaign. Their page, @medschool_racism, has impressed us with its reach and engagement, publishing stories from medical students and healthcare professionals from the UK and beyond. The pair have created a platform which is drawing attention…
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Spilling the Tea on NHS Logistics
Our #HealthHeroes are doing an absolutely fantastic job, don’t get me wrong. I have been absolutely humbled and so proud of our medical community for coming together at this time and sacrificing their own health to save British lives. I think many can agree it has been so noble and brave. However, some things within the NHS just don’t seem…
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This is (barely) Palestine
I used to think I had quite a unique experience with the discovery of the Palestinian lifestyle, especially for a person of Palestinian origin. With the COVID-19 pandemic, it’s possible that my experience can now extend further and help others discover more about the Palestinian people in a way we wouldn’t have been able to before. We may be able…
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Getting Involved with Activism as a Fresher
Making the transition from school to university is a big deal. I can recall that air of unspoken excitement and nerves that filled the room where I first met my course mates at the start of the year. It held endless possibilities. It’s a time that marks new beginnings, and often feels like a fresh page ready for self-exploration and…
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Reflections on Ahmaud Arbery and the importance of #BlackLivesMatter: The perspective of one black woman
On a Sunday afternoon in February, Ahmaud Arbery went on a run in his local neighbourhood – something he had done many times before. However, this was to be his last run. He was fatally shot, after being pursued by, father and son, Gregory and Travis McMichael. They claimed to have thought that Arbery was a burglar and believed he…
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Musings on Coronavirus
I find myself writing this on the 19th day since the Head of Undergraduate Medicine wrote to us all with guidance about our teaching and exams given the COVID-19 pandemic. When I opened that email, I read the first paragraph and then skimmed the rest until my eyes came to the assessment section: year 6 written paper to be postponed,…
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Welfare at Imperial: Why is it fundamental?
The Oxford English Dictionary describes wellbeing as the state of being comfortable, healthy or happy, the application of wellbeing is rooted in a myriad of factors; wellbeing is not fleeting, but it’s more of a constant state of living. Taking care of one’s welfare doesn’t only involve discussing a personal issue, going to a wellbeing workshop or reading articles –…
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Ekushey February – International Mother Tongue Day
Being a second generation immigrant often means you are raised bilingual, and switching between languages is a part of life. Often it is easy to fall into dismissing the weight and significance of what you’re doing or the unique effect it can have on people. Language is a representation of the people that speak it; it will tell you where…
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The Climate Crisis: Past, Present and Future
On the 3rd of October 2019 President Vladimir Putin shifted in his seat, looked around at the audience he found himself in front of at the Energy conference in Moscow and told them: “I may disappoint you, but I don’t share everyone’s enthusiasm about Greta Thunberg’s speech… nobody explained to Greta that the modern world is complicated and complex.” He…
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The London Fresher
London excites me. It reeks of promise, of memories to be made and experiences to be found. Unlike so many places this city is not satisfied by simply acting as the stage for stories to be written. It moulds them. It seeps into the very fabric of their construction. And how could it not? Its personality is as pervasive as…
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To Champion a Cause
On a Monday morning back in August, I awoke in a sluggish stupor. This was quite typical post my summer slumbers, which lasted an unhealthy average of 10 hours. Before my feet could hit the floor my thumb had begun its bi-hourly ritual of swiping through my social media feed, desperate to prevent a scenario where the latest holiday pictures…
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Six smashing suggestions on how to make your fresher’s year the most memorable
Imperial College London. When I received my acceptance letter this time last year, I couldn’t believe it. I remember the morning of results day like it was yesterday, anxiously checking UCAS, realising that the days and weeks and months of endless work had finally, finally paid off. Honestly, it feels like first year has been and gone in a flash.…
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Adjusting to your new world of work
So you’ve got your results, you’ve packed your bags and you’re counting down the days until you step onto campus. In less than a month you’ll be a medical student, and hopefully that thought is one not of trepidation, but of excitement. In the last year I’ve dissected a thorax, learned more enzymes than I thought possible, and come out…
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More than bricks and mortar: the Vision of Medical Education in the buildings at St Mary’s of 1933
The laying of the foundation stone on 30 June 1931 of the current medical school building at St Mary’s by the then Duchess of York, president of the Hospital and later Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother, was of such national and even international importance that the speech of the former prime minister Stanley Baldwin was broadcast to the world by…
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Introduction to the St Mary’s Sale
A surprise announcement of Imperial’s intention to sell the St Mary’s medical school building has invoked anger from ICSM students and alumni. The student body was informed of the decision on 25th July via an email sent on behalf of Professor Alice Gast (Imperial College President), Professor Ian Walmsley (Imperial College Provost) and Professor Jonathan Weber (Dean, Faculty of Medicine). …
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ICSM First-Years Stand in Solidarity with Sudanese Protestors
Two months ago, on the 3rd of June, tragedy struck. Pro-democracy protestors in Khartoum, who were calling for a majority civilian controlled interim government, were brutally cracked down on by the military, leaving 100 people dead and 500 wounded. The violence, essentially large-scale pre-meditated murder, was carried out under orders of the Transitional Military Council who had took over after…
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Kashmir Bleeds
Hundreds of voices fervently repeated this same word over and over; the extent of emotion and weight behind the sound was profound. Translating to ‘freedom’ in Kashmiri, ‘azadi’ encapsulates the plight of a people forced to fight for their liberty and fundamental rights. Trafalgar Square was adorned by vibrant splashes of orange and green as protestors waved Kashmiri flags; others…
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Top 10 Podcasts to help you through medical school
Podcasts can be a great way to pass the time as a med student, and we have put together a list of 10 podcasts that will educate, inspire and aid in your years in medical school. There are plenty more podcasts out there and we recommend if you haven’t got into any yet you have a search on spotify and…
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A Personal Fiefdom: Benjamin Golding and the establishment of Charing Cross Hospital
Benjamin Golding, the founder of Charing Cross Hospital, was born, the son of a prosperous tanner, on 7 September1793 at St Osyth near Clacton. In 1811 he began his study of medicine at the University of Edinburgh and in 1815 enrolled at St Thomas’ to complete his medical training. He also received his MD from the University of St Andrews…
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From Aeschylus to Aesculapius: How my father’s bravura performance as Clytemnestra led directly to him becoming a doctor and to my appearance on the world’s stage
(adapted from Nursing Churchill: Wartime Life from the Private Letters of Winston Churchill’s Nurse, by Jill Rose, Foreword by the Hon Emma Soames. Amberley Press: 15 June 2018) The son of a Presbyterian minister, my father Roger Miles was blessed with an amiable personality, a wry sense of humour and a well-developed notion of fair play. He was an enthusiastic,…