BSH 2020 Student Essay Prize ‐ ‘How are you inspired by haematology and how will you inspire others to become haematologists?’

Abstract

SummaryAll medical personnel ponder their future career, and students perhaps more so than professionals. Indeed, there are many old and famous specialties in which we might envision ourselves forging a path, each competing for our attention. Far‐off from the clamour and glamour of venerable medicine and surgery, however, there lies younger specialties that reward quiet curiosity and stolid perseverance. Chief amongst them, in my eyes, is the speciality of haematology. Often misunderstood or otherwise unheard of, the subject of haematology and those practice it have steadily plotted a course through the maelstrom of blood disease and unremittingly turned its tide back in favour of the patients, for whom they labour. As the British Society for Haematology celebrates its 60th anniversary, the question rightly posed this year to interested students is, based on our own personal reflections, how should we continue to nourish the buds of enthusiasm and interest for this still‐blossoming specialty? In this essay, I put forth those intellectual and historical facets of haematology which have given me great inspiration, and I reflect on how we, as practitioners or as aspirants, can best cultivate the passion we feel for our subject in the hearts of others.