Student winner

Robert Cartwright-Speakman, School of Medical Sciences

Rob is actively involved in a number of community activities across the University, locally, and nationally. He has been involved in widening participation (WP)work in Wigan (where he is from) for over 4 years, running school outreach sessions on how to get into medicine and what a career in medicine entails. He has recently started working on a ‘Future Medic’  curriculum to give to schools and has already had local schools interested in using this to start medical societies. His national WP work has involved being part of a national forum, running multiple workshops which teach students and professionals about WP and how it can be improved. He has also created a WP scheme at the company he works for which provides exam resources for medical students and the scheme he has created gives free access to these resources for WP students having now had over 400 sign ups.

Rob is also the North West lead for a national charity known as AIMS Guide where he mentors WP students from the North West on a 1:1 basis, matches up other keen medical students to budding WP students and delivers teaching sessions. He is also a student Medical Liaison Officer for the Royal Medical Benevolent Fund - a charity that provides financial support and advice to medical students and doctors who end up with financial issues and promotes their activities among our students, many whom have been impacted by the pandemic, as many part time jobs ceased during the multiple lockdowns.