This summer, I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to travel to Australia as part of my medical elective, at the end of my 4th year of medical school. When trying to organise the elective, I decided to get in touch with the Development Office at Hymers. 

Communication via the Old Hymerian’s network enabled this and allowed for a wonderful elective which took me around Albany, Perth, and Darwin.  Although 9 months in the waiting, I ended up taking up Dr Russell Young's (OH 1980-90) offer and had a placement with him and the Emergency Department team for a month.

Everyone was so nice and welcoming, with many a souvenir being bought and returned home. This placement provided an excellent opportunity to not only gain experience in emergency medicine, but also to see the beauty of Australia for myself. I only scratched the surface of what Australia had to offer, leaving plenty to return for in the future.    

Many timtams were consumed, lots of wallabies were seen, but sadly no tan was gained and I returned to the UK looking ‘medium rare’.

Dr Russell Young is a specialist in emergency medicine and sports medicine/general practice. The photo above was on a visit to Kakadu National Park, near Darwin. Many thanks to Dr Young for facilitating the elective.

I now enter my final year of medical school at the University of Liverpool, where I am based at Aintree hospital for most of the year. Then, I will be assigned anywhere in the UK come March. If my randomly-assigned rank enables it, I will hopefully be able to complete my foundation training at Arrowe Park hospital in the Wirral, starting in August 2025.

Alex Anderson, OH 2008-18