Lucy Zocek

I would like to offer my deepest gratitude to the James Pantyfedwen Foundation for providing me with a scholarship towards my MSc in Clinical and Health Psychology in Bangor University. The financial aid that I received allowed me to complete my degree in the absence of additional stress caused by finances, and allowed me to become the first person in my immediate family to complete both an undergraduate and postgraduate degree.  

During my degree, I was able to volunteer for the UK's leading eating disorder charity, Beat, as a digital helpline volunteer and also work full time as a Health Care Support Worker in a tier 4 adolescent inpatient unit whilst also achieving a distinction in my Masters programme. The combination of those three things was definitely a lot to balance, but I believe the scholarship I received was a motivating factor in me wanting to push myself to experience as much as possible in the area of mental health, whilst I had the financial aid behind me as a support. 

Throughout my degree, I learnt so much about so many different areas of mental health. I undertook modules in developmental psychology to study how mental health affects people across their lifespan, alongside modules in clinical psychology where I learnt about a variety of different mental health conditions and the complex interplay of factors which interact to produce them, and also neuropsychology modules where I was taught to administer neuropsychological assessments and to interpret neuroimages. Lastly, throughout my degree I also increased my knowledge of statistical testing and how to use different statistical software opting to learn a new coding programme, R which is becoming increasingly popular in the field in place of SPSS.  

At present, I am working as an Assistant Psychologist in the Older Adults Psychology Service where I am putting to use everything that I learnt in my degree. Within the upcoming years I am aiming to get onto the DClinPsy programme so I can qualify as a chartered Clinical Psychologist and achieve my dream career. 

Thank you again to the James Pantyfedwen Foundation for the support you have provided me with, this would not have been possible without it.