Yosola Aina had the great honour of opening the recent ‘Creating the healthiest generation of children’ Kings Fund event, in partnership with Banardo’s, an event which she has spent the last 10 months planning. Yosola is a passionate advocate for child health equality, which is what drove her to pursue medicine as a career. She even got to meet one of her biggest inspirations on the occasion!
Hi, I'm Princess but I usually go by my Nigerian name Yosola! I'm originally from Manchester so not too far from Liverpool.
I was inspired to choose medicine due to my deep desire to understand why there are health disparities, why certain demographics of people experience worse health outcomes or receive worse treatment due to subconscious biases by not only healthcare professional but the entire system of healthcare.
My goal is to become a highly educated doctor who recognises cultural bias, conducts research about illness, diseases and treatment for all kinds of people and uses their voice to advocate for positive change.
Medicine was the degree that perfectly balanced my curiosity and love for learning!
I think the memory that stands out the most for me from the start of uni was during our intro week where we got together in Cedar house and were able to socialise and talk to everyone. Not only were my peers so lovely and friendly but I thought all the tutors and professors at the university were so welcoming, smiley and friendly, that really surprised me in a nice way.
It was nice to have those conversations and warm openness from them, campus felt very big and quite intimidating at the time especially with all the new people, new accommodation but having those small moments with the year lead and other members of the year 1 team, knowing they’re the ones who will be guiding us through the course, really built that trust and make everything feel very re-assuring.
In Manchester I was a health youth inspector, a group of young people who would inspect and survey health services for young people whether that be CAMHS services or Children’s Wards, this was a regional project and through that I got involved in the NHS Youth Forum/NHS Young Researchers in partnership with Barnardo's.
I’ve always been passionate about healthcare for young people and about how language used can reinforce bias, stereotypes and poor health for some communities.
As a member of the Forum, we have had many opportunities to speak in parliament and events like this, the Kings Fund first ever youth led event.
I was part of the planning group which lasted about 10 months leading up to the event.
It was amazing to hear from so many professionals but also to be heard and to share that space and power with decision makers to advocate for young people and try to bring about a change in systems that were designed for adults.
The event - Creating the healthiest generation of children: turning prevention, early intervention and children’s wellbeing into reality - really was such an empowering experience. I know I and the other 5 members of the planning group as well as the team at Barnardo's, worked so incredibly hard leading up the event. I was able to speak on the opening panel with the CEO and Director of Health for Barnardo's, the CEO of the Kings Fund and the National Clinical Director for children and young people (NHSE).
It was an undoubtedly nerve wracking experience however I cannot put into the words the feeling as a young person, sharing space and power in a room where people have the ability to change things about health, that feeling of hope and the optimism that ‘yes, things are going in the right direction’ in terms of using young people and their lived experience to shape services around them instead of falling through the gaps of a service that wasn't made for them.
I was also able to hear Sir Michael Marmot deliver a message to the audience, which was so exciting. I've found his work really incredible, and his work and books have been one of the accelerators to my decision to pursue medicine.
Congratulations Yosola! If you too are passionate about Child Health too, there's plenty going on at the University of Liverpool, including a new Liverpool Institute of Child Health and Wellbeing in collaboration with Alder Hey Children's Hospital, a PhD in Child Health and of course our fantastic student-led Liverpool Paediatric Society.