Contributor Aimee Eckert

{credit}Courtesy of Aimee Eckert{/credit}

When I started my first year of A-Levels, my father sat my younger sister and I down and told us he was terminally ill. Despite surviving previous tumours of the throat and lymph, cruelly and almost mockingly, a melanoma scattered its metastases and took residence in his brain. I cannot remember much of that conversation apart from that he might ‘have a year left.’  After the most courageous fight imaginable, he passed away at home eight months later in May, aged only 43 years old.

Biology has always been a passion for me, as during school I was astounded by how the individual units of our bodies – our cells – work, and what goes wrong in the event of disease. My family’s experience was a key factor in cementing my decision to study cell biology at university and pursue a scientific career. However, due to the prevalence of cancer (in the UK, 1 in 3 people will be diagnosed with it) my story is far from unique; throughout my undergraduate and now postgraduate study, I continue to meet people who have had extremely similar experiences. This has reinforced the fact that I am not alone and it is a powerful source of inspiration when lab work gets stressful.

When it was time for me to apply for PhD positions, questions that needed to be answered on the application forms and personal statements included ‘why do you want to do a PhD?’ and ‘why are you interested in this area of research?’ For me, thinking about my father helped me describe my motivation and discipline and to write a strong application. I was concerned as to whether it was appropriate to briefly mention my experience of cancer in PhD applications. I imagined unpleasant images of my application going straight into the ‘No’ pile if I did. In the end, I decided that what had happened to my family was relevant: it had contributed to my development as a scientist and that the laboratories I was applying to should know about it. Continue reading →