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Safiyyah Mahmood

Medicine

I’ve found the smaller class sizes at Edge Hill very beneficial and I’m really enjoying my time here.

My mum is a pharmacist and I have aunties and uncles who are pharmacists and doctors too. They were big inspirations to me when I was young and I was aware of how hard they had worked to get there, so I knew that if I wanted to be a doctor I was going to have to focus and give it my all.

Out of the 80 students in my school year, only around a quarter of us progressed to higher education. I’m from a really small town and it still doesn’t feel real that I’m at university because it’s not something that a lot of people where I’m from really do, especially in my high school.

At first I did struggle when applying to university. I received some help from my school with my personal statement but there was limited support and I found that hard. There were points when I really struggled and lacked confidence. I remember once being told that medicine was too competitive and I’d never be able to make it, which was really disheartening to hear.”

From that moment on, I was adamant that I was going to achieve this, and nothing was going to hold me back. There was never a back-up plan for me, I was determined to go into medicine and my family were committed to helping me achieve it and that support meant everything.

I’m from a small town and because of that, I don’t think I would have enjoyed learning in really large cohorts. I’ve found the smaller class sizes at Edge Hill very beneficial and I’m really enjoying my time here. I’m a strong believer that if something is meant to be then it will happen, and I wouldn’t change anything.