Mature student looking to switch from a software career to life sciences

I'm a prospective mature student looking for a career change. I've worked in software development for about 30 years, before that I did a B.Sc. in physics. I'm interested in getting in to research in life sciences, idealy biochemistry. As a precursor to that I think I'd need to do a B.Sc, as it obviously unrelated to my original degree or career. I'm looking at Reading Uni, it seems to have a course that really fits my interests, plus I live near there so wouldn't need to relocate.

I'd be interested in hearing from any mature students, especially post-grads, who applied to do Biochem or similar - how was the process? In particular I'm interested in doing an "accelerated" degree - I know in some cases it's possible to skip the first year if you already have a degree - did anyone do this and if so how was it? I imagine it's quite an effort to pick up in year 2. Maybe it would be better to do the full course (or even start in the foundation year).

Any advice from those who've done this would be much appreciated!

(originally posted in the Reading Uni forum but that didn't seem to get much traction there :smile: