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Difficult dilema

Not really sure where the best place to discuss this is but here goes,

I am not currently disabled but am due to be medically retired from my current job due to a low grade but malignant brain tumour which is incurable.

And here is the dilema.....my medical retirement gives me the time and more importantly the means to pursue a lifelong ambition to go to university. Nothing wrong with that one might say. The issue is that I would really like to study medicine.

Moving beyond the not insurmountable challenge of getting in as a mature student, I have no idea how my illness will progress and if it will interfere with my studies.

I don't have a prognosis as such because the tumour is slow growing. It could become troublesome in 12 months, 12 years or more, we just don't know.

Do I pursue an ambition, knowing that I could occupy a hard fought for space with a risk that I may never complete the studies due to illness, or do I leave it be only to find myself not developing symptoms for years and years?

There is nothing to guarantee that better treatments won't be available in the next 5 or 10 years which could cure me. I could understand if someone felt agrieved if I took the place of another student who could serve the community for far longer than I. Even that would be making an assumption that they would pass or even stick with medicine.

It's a difficult moral dilema, particularly when it's a personal ambition.

Regards,
RTosh1

Reply 1

Hygeia

Hmm, this is a difficult one. Personally, I would suggest ringing round a few of the medical schools admissions teams and seeing what their take is on it. Regardless, you'd need to be seen by occupational health before being allowed to start the course as you'd need their approval. Fitness to practice is the key from the medical schools point of view really rather than longevity to practice as such (e.g. medical schools allow 50+ year olds on the course who have a limited time in which they'll be able to contribute before retiring)