The journey into medicine and healthcare is rarely straightforward. But for students from financially constrained backgrounds, it can be particularly challenging. Donor supported Access Edinburgh Scholarships provide critical support to ensure that talent, determination and compassion are never limited by circumstance. By removing financial barriers and enabling students to focus on their studies, donors like you are helping shape the next generation of doctors, researchers, and healthcare leaders. 

Supporting Potential, Shaping Healthcare: Rowan Hart’s Story 

For Rowan Hart, the journey to becoming a doctor and researcher is fuelled by determination and a commitment to equitable healthcare. Now a second-year intercalating PhD student at the University of Edinburgh, Rowan is undertaking an intensive MB-PhD pathway, combining medical training with a three-year research doctorate. Rowan’s research focuses on supported self-management in gout, aiming to improve care and quality of life for patients, reflecting a strong commitment to community-based healthcare and public health impact. 

Rowan still clearly remembers the impact of receiving the Access Edinburgh Scholarship as an undergraduate at the University of Edinburgh. That support played a crucial role in enabling Rowan to pursue medical studies and laid the foundation for their career path today. Now a PhD student reflecting back on that early opportunity, Rowan recognises how the scholarship helped navigate university and build the confidence to aim higher. 

Currently a second-year intercalating PhD student on the University’s intensive MB–PhD pathway, Rowan combines medical training with a three-year research doctorate. Rowan’s research focuses on supported self-management in gout, with the aim of improving care and quality of life for patients. Looking back, Rowan sees the Access Edinburgh Scholarship as a key part of the support system that helped him progress to this point, reinforcing their commitment to equitable, community-based healthcare and meaningful public health impact. Growing up in the Northeast of England, Rowan was aware of the financial realities of higher education long before arriving at university. 

“Coming from a background where I knew my family wouldn’t be able to support me, finance was definitely at the top of my mind, even when I was 17 and applying for uni.” 

Without support, financial pressures often force students into excessive part-time work, disproportionately affecting widening-participation students and limiting academic potential. 

Rowan’s path to Edinburgh was supported by widening-participation initiatives such as the Sutton Trust summer school, which helped Rowan imagine belonging at the university. Once enrolled, many challenges were structural and largely unseen, including complex funding systems and bursary applications undertaken alongside a demanding medical degree. 

This is where donor-funded programmes like the Access Edinburgh Scholarship make a critical difference.
“With the cost-of-living crisis… having that is just like a lifeline really,” Rowan says. Automatically assessed and paid, the scholarship removes administrative burden and delivers support when it is most needed. 

The impact is tangible. Donor support has allowed Rowan to focus on learning, research and patient care. “I’m so grateful to donors, thanks to them I’m able to focus more on my studies and less on part-time jobs, I’m not having to work 30–40 hours alongside studying.” 

That financial stability has made the demanding MB-PhD pathway possible. As Rowan puts it simply, “Without funding, I wouldn’t be able to do this PhD.” Rowan’s story demonstrates what becomes possible when talent is matched with opportunity and how donor support does more than change one student’s path. It helps shape the future of healthcare, research, and improve patient outcomes. 

A Second Chance: How Widening Participation Transformed Tom Cadden’s Life 

At 40, Tom Cadden’s path to medical school is far from traditional. A former operations director who once ran nine pubs in London, Tom is now in his fourth year at Edinburgh Medical School, a journey made possible through widening-participation pathways and generous donor support. 

“I’m a mature student. I have a background in hospitality,” Tom says. “I decided in a moment of madness to give it all up and try to help people.” 

It was managing people, not profits, that sparked a change in Tom’s life. “Everything changed when a former employee, who had battled addiction, retrained as a counsellor. Seeing someone truly helping others inspired me,” Tom says. 

‘Without having the standard science qualifications, he needed, Tom started from scratch with a college access course in Glasgow serving as the crucial stepping stone to Edinburgh Medical School. These pathways ensure talent and life experience are not excluded simply because someone’s early circumstances didn’t follow the traditional academic path. 

Financial barriers, however, remained. Having received student funding earlier in life, Tom was ineligible for government support and had to work long shifts alongside full-time study. “I’m in university five days a week, then a 12.5-hour shift at hospital, and one day for errands and sometimes sleep,” he says light heartedly. 

 “I doubt I could do it without an Access Edinburgh Scholarship this. No one could work seven days a week and complete a six-year course and I’m grateful for the opportunity to thank donors for all their help.” 

As Tom describes studying medicine as “a take two on life” and a second chance to help others, his story underscores the life-changing impact of widening-participation routes and donor generosity. 

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