Congress awe-inspiring for Mary Macdonald award winners
Created in honour of former IBMS Council Member Mary Macdonald, Mary wished to encourage and recognise excellence in others working in laboratory support worker roles.
The Mary Macdonald Congress Award sponsors up to 20 free places for non-HCPC registered members to attend the Biomedical Support Staff programme at IBMS Congress.
Following Congress 2019, some of the award winners commented on their time at this year’s event:
Sandra Power said, “I enjoyed the afternoon at IBMS Congress listening to all the talks regarding Laboratory Support Workers. The talks were very informative, interesting and enjoyable and were relevant to my job as a Medical Laboratory Assistant in Microbiology at Macclesfield District General Hospital as I am currently studying General Certificate in Biomedical Science (Distance Learning) at Ulster University to top up my Biology degree and hopefully progress.”
Vanimira Dzhugdanova commented, “I'm grateful to have had this amazing opportunity as part of the support staff, I found all the talks so useful and informative, it was fascinating seeing and hearing about new technology and the future of pathology. I really encourage anyone to attend this event."
Matthew Burdett added, “Being one of the winners of the Mary MacDonald award helped me so much by giving me and the other winners the opportunity to attend Congress and to improve our CPD. The biomedical science support staff session was very informative.
It was a great opportunity to learn more and connect with other professionals. Thank you to everyone at the IBMS for making this happen and thank you to all of the speakers who made the talks amazing. It was definitely a fantastic experience that I won’t be forgetting!”
Nikita Delgaty said,
"Experience is the best teacher and being given the opportunity to visit Congress has opened up my mind to ideas around other areas of research and the chance to explore new roles in science and healthcare. Thank you for offering me the Mary McDonald bursary and giving me an insight into the world of Biomedical Science."
Zoe Andrews shared, “I would say it was an awe-inspiring experience and there were so many interesting lectures. But the closing plenary was just fantastic and Professor James Grieve summed up my learning is his speech when he said: ‘How important entertainment is to education’.IBMS Congress 2019 was definitely entertaining; we were provided with enjoyment in endless amounts.”
Zoe tweeted:
What a fab day at #IBMSCongress2019 seeing all the future students (myself included) from all different backgrounds, different stages in their studies and listening at how to progress in the field #network #networking #IBMSChat fab day thankyou #IBMS
— Zoe Andrews (@_Zoe_Andrews) September 23, 2019
We are thrilled to be able to support our members and are delighted to know they enjoyed themselves at Congress. For more information about the Mary Macdonald Bursary, see our website.