In conversation with our alumni: Dr Samantha Cox (nee Currie)

Samantha is a ST6 Clinical Oncology registrar working at the South West Wales Cancer Centre at Singleton Hospital, Swansea.

Samantha lives in Cardiff with her husband and two children. A typical working day is spent reviewing patients with upper gastrointestinal malignancies, both on the wards and in clinic, prescribing systemic anti-cancer treatments and planning radiotherapy.

In conversation with Samantha, she explains her reasons for choosing Cardiff School of Medicine:

“I remember visiting Cardiff for the first time on an Open Day in 1999 and having a really good feeling about the place. It seemed to be a friendly and exciting city, easily accessible and somewhere I could see myself being happy for the next five years. I liked the format of the curriculum, with placements across Wales and that anatomy was taught using human dissection. Little did I know that I would meet my husband-to-be over the dissection table!”

Samantha recalls some of her most memorable times as a Cardiff medical student

“In the early years it was trundling down Colum Road in the rain for long days of lectures in BioSci given using overhead projectors, essays saved on floppy disks, my first mobile phone bought on a lunch break, fry-ups in the main university building canteen and catching the yellow double-decker bus from the Union back to Talybont Halls singing ‘Build Me Up Buttercup’.

Clinical placements wearing creased white coats on ward rounds, nervously resenting the findings of a CXR held up to an x-ray box and scrubbing into theatre for the first time only to touch my glasses and have to re-do it all again. Thursday nights in the Philharmonic and Caroline Street aka ‘Chippy alley’.

Making the most of placements in Singleton Hospital playing frisbee and having BBQs on the beach in the summer. University trips volunteering in an orphanage in Belarus, skiing in Val Thorens, and an elective in Montego Bay, Jamaica all provide fond memories.”

During her third year as a medical student, Samantha followed a patient during the course of his cancer treatment as part of the University’s oncology project. This experience directly influenced her decision to become an oncologist and she explains why she finds this career so rewarding:

“Cancer treatments are becoming more successful and survival rates are improving. For example, major advances in state-of-the-art drugs are working their way into everyday clinical practice, enabling us to target the individual patient’s cancer type.

Technological advances in radiotherapy planning are allowing us to eradicate tumours more accurately and spare damage to normal tissues. It can be emotionally challenging in cases where a cure is not possible. However, we can often make a real difference by helping to improve symptoms and maintain a patient’s quality of life.”

Read the full article

This is a shortened version of the full article that features in the edition 25 of ReMEDy.