Emily Philpott – Springfield Hospital

My name is Emily Philpott and I am currently working as a Senior MRI/CT Radiographer at Springfield Hospital, Chelmsford in Essex. From the minute I started my Radiography training, I knew I was well suited to this job. MRI is my passion but I have also grown to love CT too.

I have always been highly passionate in my role and have great empathy for my patients. I have received many personal thank you letters from patients and gained confidence of colleagues and peers by being nominated for the customer service scheme. Further to this, in 2015 I was nominated for an outstanding service award by my Line Manager. This recognition continued into 2018 as I was nominated for a Compassion in Practice Award and a Customer Service Award for the East Region Health Care Awards. With over 100 nominations, I was selected as one of the final three finalists and received the runner-up Customer Service Award. I thrive from making a difference to patients and do all I can to go the extra mile to give them the best patient experience. I have always been ambitious and a couple of years after qualifying, I wanted to continue progressing. I started my postgraduate studies, completing the postgraduate certificate with four distinctions at City University London. I then completed the diploma and achieved another four distinctions. At the beginning, I had convinced myself that I would never been able to do a Masters, but with the grades I was achieving I realised I should probably complete it. I was receiving great support from my family and I could tell how proud they all were of me and I couldn’t wait for that day to come where I would be standing at graduation with my proud family surrounding me.

I agreed to start my Masters Dissertation in September 2018. Little did I know, I was about to encounter the worst year of my life. Just before my Dissertation started, my Grandad was diagnosed with advanced gallbladder cancer which had spread to his liver, lymph nodes and peritoneum and he was given six months to live. Sadly, he passed away within a month of diagnosis in August 2018. In the July, I had an accident and broke my collar bone so not only was I in emotional pain but physical too. Nevertheless, I still determined to continue with my studies.

In October 2018 my mother started to feel unwell and so numerous tests started to be carried out. I was in a world of complete worry not knowing what was wrong with my Mum but I was still managing to stay focused writing my dissertation. It took 6 months to diagnose her condition and it was a very rare disease called Eosinophilic fasciitis. On top of this, in January 2019, my Nan fell over and broke her hip and was operated on at 95 years old.

We were told mum would recover from the condition but it could be a slow recovery. Four days later, on Good Friday, 19th April 2019, Mum very suddenly went into cardiac arrest at home and tragically did not survive. My world fell apart, as my mum was my everything.

I had a dissertation to finish. My world was full of grief, I felt so numb and I was in complete shock. My supervisor at University was very supportive and my dissertation was put on hold. The deadline for the dissertation was approaching in September 2019. A month before the deadline, my family was given the most unimaginable news that there was a serious incident investigation being carried out on the ambulance service as Mum received care below their standards on the night she passed away. With life being a complete blur, I still wanted to finish my dissertation, I had been sat with Mum regularly when writing it and she knew I was doing well with it. I wanted to make her proud. My heart was broken into so many tiny pieces and just the thought of her not being at my graduation made me cry for hours. When I look back, I don’t know how I finished my work. But not only did I finish it, I achieved a Distinction! The dissertation gave me a purpose to keep going and I kept telling myself that my Mum would have wanted me to finish it after all the hard work I had already put in.

My supervisor, Dr Sophie Willis was so proud of me and sent me numerous e-mails of encouragement and support that made me cry, if it wasn’t for her I wouldn’t have got through so I can’t thank her enough. I worked so hard to get the distinction and I am so pleased that this was noticed. As my dissertation was completed to a high standard, this led to it being accepted to be presented as a poster in the European Congress of Radiology 2020 in Vienna and the UK Imaging and Oncology conference. I am currently in process of submitting my work to be published in scientific journals. I am also speaking at a cross-sectional study day at West Suffolk NHS Trust in May 2020.

I also won the academic achievement prize for Radiography. All of these achievements have happened since my Mother passed away and its heartbreaking that she isn’t here to see me progress in my career. My Graduation just wasn’t the same without her, but I stood proud knowing she was watching over me. She will always be in my heart to help me get to where I want to be.

Submitted by Emily Philpott, senior MRI/CT radiographer, Springfield Hospital, Chelmsford.

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