Mohammed Sood, a hospital doctor from Mombasa in Kenya, says that he would not have been able to study at the University of Buckingham without his Ondaatje Scholarship because he couldn’t have afforded it. The £7,500 he was awarded has been a godsend.
A qualified doctor, Mohammed has signed up for a two-year clinical MD in General Internal Medicine which he will be studying at Ealing Hospital in West London.
The course will help him to achieve the postgraduate qualification he is seeking in nephrology. “This is an area of special concern in my country,” he says. “The number of cases of people with kidney problems is increasing because of diabetes and hypertension.”
“Now, when I go back with this degree I will be a consultant physician.”
Mohammed is also being helped financially by his patients in Mombasa who raised some of the money he needed. “When I told them about the course, they said they would chip in to help me build up the money for the tuition,” he says. “I am using that now.”
Educated at school in Mombasa and then at the University of Nairobi where he trained as a doctor, Mohammed has left behind a mother and sister.
This is his first visit to the UK; he is living in a hall of residence in West London. How does he like it?
“The weather is a bit changeable,” he says tactfully. “And it is very expensive compared to where I come from.” But the education he is receiving makes it all worthwhile.
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