On 6 July,  seven current medical students from the University of Edinburgh will be accepting a posthumous MBChB degree on behalf of the Edinburgh Seven.  We spoke to each of them about the significance of the event and their ambitions for the future.

 Izzie Dighero, Year 4. Originally from London.

What inspires you about the Edinburgh Seven?
Faced by astounding ignorance and adverse circumstance, the Edinburgh Seven were committed to challenging the belief that women couldn’t train to become doctors. It was their initial actions that laid the way for so much progress for women within the medical profession over the past 150 years. Their sense of compassion, bravery and drive is truly inspiring.

Why do you think it’s important that the seven are receiving their posthumous degrees?
It means Edinburgh Medical School is (finally..) recognising the incredible achievements of these women. Aside from this, I hope this gesture will draw attention to how the Edinburgh Seven’s contribution to medicine still reverberates today as well as acting as a spotlight to highlight some of the ongoing gender-based issues in healthcare.

What do you hope to achieve in your own career?
I appreciate that it’s still early days and I’m trying to remain open minded. However,so far, I think I would like to train in a core medical specialty such as cardiology. In addition, I strongly believe in the importance of the clinician’s role as a researcher. In an ideal world, I’ll be leading my own clinical trials in 30 years or so!

Representing the Seven:  Izzie Dighero / Edinburgh Seven by blogadmin is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution CC BY 3.0