Mary Macdonald Bursary Winners 2024

The Mary Macdonald Bursary was established in memory of former IBMS Council member, Mary Macdonald. Mary is remembered as an outstanding professional, colleague and mentor, who began her career as a laboratory support worker and was keen to encourage and recognise excellence in others working in similar roles.

The Bursary aims to support biomedical science staff to undertake the IBMS Certificate of Achievement Part I or II qualification. It covers the cost of the Part I or II portfolio and IBMS Associate membership fees for the year.

Congratulations to Martin Baker and Kevin Waugh, the winners of this year’s Mary Macdonald Bursary 2024.

Joanna Andrew, IBMS President, commented on the winners:

"Having started my career as a biomedical support worker,  I am so pleased that the Mary Macdonald Bursary recognises that our support workers are important members of our IBMS family. Many congratulations to the winners"

The 2024 winners comment on what these achievements mean to them

Martin Baker, Advanced Biomedical Support Worker at Dartford and Gravesham NHS Trust:

"Thank you to the IBMS for awarding me with the Mary MacDonald Bursary. Having worked in and alongside pathology labs for most of my working life, I am looking forward to converting my knowledge and experience into an IBMS qualification.

Completing the certificate of achievement will help me identify areas needing improvement and allow me to self-reflect on these areas in a way that sometimes does not happen in a busy working environment.

Having dyslexia, I sometimes find it difficult to express myself through the written word, so working through the qualification will challenge me and help improve my abilities.
Receiving the bursary will help alleviate some of the stress of taking on this challenge."

Kevin Waugh, Advanced Biomedical Support Worker at NHS Lothian Health Care Sciences:

"This is such a brilliant thing to happen to me. I am over the moon. I was overwhelmed and felt so privileged to receive the Mary Macdonald Prize. The bursary will really help me achieve my goals for 2024, which include completing Part 2 of the portfolio. I am ever so grateful for this."

 You can find out more about the Mary MacDonald Bursary here.