Biomedical Science Foundation Degree - leading to full BSc (Hons) Degree at University of Greenwich
Ray Akpofure, has travelled far to get to where he is after dropping out of another top London University eight years ago. During that time, he has spent a period working as a bar tender and undertaking a year’s voluntary work experience at Hammersmith Hospital. Throughout, he has stayed determined, focussed and has never given up on his dream to become a consultant medical research scientist, hoping one day to lead a team to a major clinical breakthrough in cancer treatments.
During the pandemic, Ray, currently working as a Research Assistant at the National Amyloidosis Centre, Royal Free Hospital in Hertfordshire, joined a team bio-referencing the Covid-19 virus found in medics working within the hospital’s Covid Hub and tracking its behaviour in all those testing positive. The findings of the research was then released to Pfizer, one of the world’s leading biopharmaceutical companies and developer of a Covid vaccine now being used throughout the world.
Ray says:
“I still consider this to be the start of my career in biomedical science and feel blessed to be working in an area where each day one medical discovery leads to another. No matter how small, the tasks you perform in this field, they are always significant. It gives me a great deal of job satisfaction and every day is different.
“I’m proud of the work I have been involved with so far and so glad I persevered with my dream. During the time I spent studying my Foundation Degree, I was working lots of hours, juggling the work with studying and training for my basketball team Oakland Wolves. Some days I would only manage four or five-hours sleep. It was very hard going but I was determined.”
“As a personal mantra, I believe that you always get what you have the leverage to negotiate. Studying and achieving a qualification alone isn’t going to get you to where you want to be. You have to add value to that qualification with experience of working on live projects within the sector. I’ve now accumulated eight years of experience and this is helping me to move along in my career quicker and faster.”
