The Adam Clayton foundation was set up to encourage young people from all walks of life to pursue a career in the medical profession. Each year the foundation grants 2 support scholarships to students in West Berkshire. Each student will receive not only financial support in the first year of their studies but also the opportunity to take part in cancer research placements organised by the foundation. It is hoped that the scholarship will nurture future generations of the medical profession and promote an awareness of cancer based treatments and how they are being developed in the UK.
The UK has arguably one of the best state education systems in the world. Regardless of socio-economic status, young people are given the best opportunities to develop academically and every year thousands of bright students leave school equipped to face the challenges of life. However, when the time comes to decide upon whether or not to continue in education their decisions are often highly influenced by the costs of studying a particular course at a particular university, rather than on the merits of a course best suited to them both personally and academically.
As a consequence many young people either end up studying a less rewarding and beneficial course or, even more alarmingly, are deterred from continuing their education at all. It is this apparent injustice that the Adam Clayton Foundation aims to tackle. This inequality is no where more apparent than in the case of medicine. Whilst all students face the challenge of funding their studies, the extra length of a medical degree, plus the need to purchase expensive equipment, are factors which have traditionally made this a very middle class profession.
By allowing all aspiring medical students in West Berkshire to apply for the scholarship it is hoped that the foundation will encourage talented students from all walks of life to study medicine. The scholarship will provide a financial incentive allowing poorer students to see this truly life saving degree as a realistic option for them. By reducing the comparative extra expense of studying medicine the foundation aims to increase the number of young people applying in West Berkshire. This focus on attracting the most talented and capable students at such an early stage in their education will ensure that the future pool of medical graduates will be flooded with high calibre candidates from all financial backgrounds.
The vision of the foundation is to promote the importance of cancer based treatments and their development. It is a sad reality that we will all, at some point in our lives, come into contact with cancer. In order to tackle this devastating condition there is a real need to keep up the current momentum of cancer research projects in the UK and we hope that the foundation will steer young medical students towards contributing to this specialist field. This will be achieved by organising work experience placements at some of the top laboratories in the country. Not only providing each student with an invaluable experience, these placements will allow students to keep up-to-date with advances in research and maintain an awareness of the treatments that we hope they will be involved in providing in the future.