Isabel Palmer

"My personality types are \"coodinator\", \"influencer\" and \"manager\". I feel like these are fairly accurate, as I tend to be able to empathise with people and understand how they are feeling, and work well with a group, whilst also enjoying leading and taking on an organisational role."

"I am a Clinical Scientist within the NHS, working as a Radiotherapy Physicist. I work with a large team of Doctors and Radiographers to make sure all our patients receive the safest and most effective treatments possible. The starting salary for this role is around £25-30,000. My job is split into lots of different sections that staff tend to rotate through: In Treatment Planning we use specialist software to design and calculate every patients individual treatment. We must arrange the radiation beams so that a high radiation dose can be given to the area we want to treat (usual a tumour) without causing damage to any healthy organs. In Dosimetry, we work with the huge radiotherapy machines to make sure they are delivering the treatments accurately and without errors. This involved doing lots of testing and calibration on the radiation beams coming out of the machines. In Brachytherapy, we work with doctors to implant radioactive sources inside patients to treat their tumours from the inside out. Here we must be careful to make sure no one receives a radiation dose that they should not be having, and also to make sure we always know how many radioactive sources we have and where they are."

"I completed a four year MSci degree in Physics with Medical Physics at the University of Nottingham. I then applied for the NHS Scientist Training Programme, a three year post-graduate training scheme which trains up clinical scientists in all sort of areas - in my case Medical Physics. Part way through my training I chose to specialise in Radiotherapy Physics, as I liked what a direct and tangible impact my work could have on our patients, and loved seeing them come back for follow up when they were much better or even cured!"

"I am quite sporty and musical - I sing in a choir and I love rowing and running. In the last few years I have even taken up long distance running and completed my first Ultra-marathon last October!"

"My typical day can really vary, but will be made up of a selection of the following: I spend some time working with specialist software to design and calculate radiotherapy treatment plans. Each treatment can take from a couple of hours to several days to plan. I will spend some time catching up on emails and meeting with other physicists, doctors and radiographers to discuss issues such as individual patient's treatment plans, changes in practice and projects or service development. I spend some time working with the radiotherapy machines, collecting measurements and testing them to make sure they are delivering the radiation accurately. I also attend the operating theatre to assist with the implant of radioactive sources within patients' tumours."

"A levels - Maths (A), Physics (A), Chemistry (A), Further Maths (B)Degree - MSci Physics with Medical Physics (1st class) - University of NottinghamMasters - MSc Clinical Science (Medical Physics) (Distinction)"