Profile: Emma Humphreys

So what did you learn today at doctor school, Mummy?

Six a.m. on a rainy Monday. White coat and file of notes? Check. Rail season ticket, St George’s identity card? Clean clothes for kids? Check, check, check, check…

For a student, getting it together can be hard even when there’s only you to think about. But by the time Emma Humphreys reaches St George’s at 8.50am, she has sorted out four small people’s lives for the day.

Toby, 10, needs his homework book signed. Seven-year-old Sam can’t find his recorder. Isabelle, five, wants plaits in her hair.

And Ben, two, helps mum and dad get everyone organised. “Big ones go to school. Mummy goes to doctor school on choo-choo.”

There’s just time for Emma, 36, to grab a mug of tea and a slice of toast. Then it’s hugs all round for the children and husband Alan, a dash for the 7.15 — and Emma’s other life begins.

By day she is totally immersed in a new world, discussing cases with fellow students, unlocking the mysteries of anatomy and physiology and learning the handson skills she will need for a lifetime working with patients.

But after hours, when colleagues head off for a well earned pint, it’s straight back on to the train for Guildford with her books: “Then I get through the door and I’m in Mummy mode.

“There’s homework, music practice, bathtime, bedtime stories, ferrying to Cubs and parents’ evenings, things to sort out for the morning — and maybe, if we’re lucky, Alan and I will get to sit down for half an hour and relax.” Supper needs clearing away, laundry must be sorted for the morning. Finally, Emma can get out her books again.

By 11pm she’ll be ready for a good night’s sleep. With four children, though, there are no guarantees. A nightmare, a temperature or Ben teething can keep her up for hours. And at 6am the alarm goes off again…

Although the four-year Graduate Entry Programme (GEP) was designed to attract entrants from non-traditional backgrounds, even by St George’s standards a mum of four is an unusual student.

Strong support, important for any parent combining study with the demands of a family, is essential. For Emma, it’s husband Alan whose willingness to swap roles has made her journey into medicine possible.

“Alan is incredibly supportive. He does all the shopping, cooking and cleaning — all the things I did when I was at home full-time. I couldn’t do any of this without him.”

Three years ago the couple’s roles were dramatically different. Alan was an information technology consultant, working long hours away from home. Emma, a former maths teacher, was busy at home with three young children.

Like many of St George’s GEP students, medicine wasn’t even on the radar for her at school.

She chose her A levels (maths, physics and music) simply “because I liked the teachers”. But after sixth-form Emma decided to try volunteering, and for a year cared for a woman paralysed with terminal multiple sclerosis.

“I suppose some people would have thought it was odd for a 17- year-old. But it seemed such a normal thing to want to do, and I really enjoyed it.

“At that stage I did think about medicine. I had always been interested in medical things, though I assumed everybody was. But it would have meant going back to school and living at home to get the right A levels, and by that time I was independent and I just couldn’t face it.”

Instead she studied maths at the University of Surrey. She got a first, took a postgraduate teaching qualification and taught for several years before having children.

It was three years ago, when Isabelle was a toddler, that two events during a trip to hospital changed Emma’s life.The first was a conversation with a young hospital doctor. Then Emma was shown into the waiting room — and picked up a magazine at random.

On the cover was a photograph of Kirsty Le Doare, who was studying at a place called St George’s in south London that trained students from non-traditional backgrounds to become doctors.

“It was one of those completely strange coincidences. I wasn’t looking for it, it just kind of found me,” Emma says now.

“I had been thinking as I talked to the young doctor how hard it must have been for her. She was only 23, and we were talking about issues surrounding pregnancy and birth, something that she said was totally outside her own experience.

“Then I started reading this article about mature students having something to offer as doctors — life experience, instead of just four As at A level — and I thought ‘maybe I could do that?’

I had no idea where Tooting was, but something suddenly fell into place.”

At first the idea of studying medicine seemed crazy. She had three children under seven, a fourth on the way. Her only biology and chemistry qualifications were O levels taken 20 years earlier. But the dream refused to die.

Emma did some research and found that, although several medical schools had followed its lead, St George’s was in practical terms the only place where she could combine medical studies with being a mum.

The following summer, heavily pregnant with Ben, she paid a visit. The student who showed her round was Kirsty Le Doare. “For a long time I didn’t tell anyone at all what I was thinking. But when I did talk to Alan, he was really supportive. He had spent years in the rat race, and he wanted to spend more time at home and see more of the children.” She signed up for more work experience, applied for a place and enrolled for the Gamsat entrance exam.

For months she got up at 5.30am to study before the school run: “I learned a lot of chemistry while I was breastfeeding!”

Emma got good marks, was called for interview and won a place. And last September, with 70 other recruits, Emma walked through the entrance of St George’s as a medical student for the first time.

Five years earlier almost to the day, Kirsty Le Doare — whose story originally inspired Emma — did the same thing as part of the original GEP intake.

Kirsty, also a mum, is now a qualified doctor.

And although Emma is reluctant to see herself as in any way unusual, she hopes that her own story in turn will encourage other parents to study medicine.