Welcoming little heroes into the lab

Andrew recently took on a new role as a chaperone for the first time, leading a tour for young patient Haziel. Later, Andrew reflected on what the tours mean to him, both as a trainee biomedical scientist and as someone with personal experience navigating healthcare as a patient.

“Every one of them is different”

Andrew is a trainee Biomedical Scientist working in Biochemistry at University Hospital Southampton, studying at the University of Portsmouth.

I’ve been helping our lab med team with Harvey’s Lab Tours for about two years now and have gotten immense joy from the experiences.

Over that time, Andrew has met many young patients through the programme and says no two tours are ever the same.

A personal connection to patient care

Andrew himself has experience as a patient after being diagnosed with testicular cancer in 2024, sharing how even with his scientific background and understanding of pathology, the experience was still deeply challenging.

I’m an emotionally stable late 30s adult, I work in pathology, I run the same machines that measured my unreasonably high tumour markers. I’ve gotten to personally know my histopathologist and even used my own tumour slides for coursework. 

During that time, studying at the University of Portsmouth also became an important outlet for Andrew, with that one day a week away from the lab environment giving him some space and routine while navigating treatment.

I am about as informed and ingrained in my own cancer pathway as you could be without simply becoming an oncologist and, as informed as I was, I was a small, sad, and terrified wreck for months, and miserable and unpleasant for at least that first year.

Looking back to the children he meets through Harvey’s Lab Tours, Andrew says their resilience continues to leave a lasting impression on him.

 

Yet these kids, with their plethora of issues and predicaments, they rock up in their little lab coats and their cheerful grins and get stuck into the experiments and the tours and they’re just so happy both in themselves and to be around.

They’re little miracles, and I’m still trying to learn from them.

Meeting Haziel

Even with experience supporting tours for years, Andrew admitted he was a little nervous about taking on the role of chaperone himself.

Chloe, our Harvey’s lead at UHS, recently asked me if I’d be interested in chaperoning the tours and I was immediately terrified at the idea. The Harvey’s mornings are always a bit fraught. What if they immediately hate me? Absolutely anxiety inducing.

But after some encouragement from Chloe, Harvey’s Lab Tours lead at UHS, and completing his training, Andrew led his first tour in April 2026 with young patient Haziel.

I’d known Haziel’s name for a long time having seen samples passing the bench over the many months. When I realised it was him, it was a bit like meeting a celebrity.

But any nerves quickly disappeared once the tour began.

 

Haziel was an absolute dude. He was shy for all of four seconds before bursting into life. Everything was interesting, all the experiments were super exciting, he loved the little plushy heart model we use to detail the dominant blood cells, and when I gave him his Harvey’s bear at the end his adorable wee voice went ‘yay a teddy!’

For a Category 2 laboratory that sees its fair share of communicable diseases, his smile was the most infectious thing in the joint.

“There’s no colour quite as bright as these little legends”

For Andrew, Harvey’s Lab Tours work by bringing something unique into the laboratory environment.

They bring an energy and a cheer into these otherwise quite beige places that’s not to be underestimated.

I’m passionate about Biomedical Science, and I feel great reward in my part of the NHS, but there’s nothing quite so magic as a little kid seeing an analyser popping, or bags of platelets quivering, or their own erythrocytes floating on a blood film and getting to watch them react to it all.

Andrew hopes more laboratories and biomedical scientists will consider getting involved with the programme.

I would strongly recommend anyone remotely interested in hosting these tours at their own site to contact the IBMS and get stuck in. Since the pandemic the NHS has been bedecked in rainbows of all sizes and vibrancy, but there’s no colour quite as bright as these little legends.

Andrew's experience leading his first tour as a chaperone is one he won’t forget any time soon.

While the analysers, blood films and laboratory equipment may be part of everyday life for biomedical scientists, Harvey’s Lab Tours continue to show how meaningful these spaces can become when seen through the eyes of a child.

As more laboratories get involved with the programme, Andrew hopes others will experience the same sense of reward that keeps him coming back to support the tours year after year.