Q&A with Akinola Idowu Adewunmni and Olubukola Adewunmi
What drew you to the field of Biomedical Science?
Akinola:
As a teenager, whenever I was sick and my parents took me to the hospital, I noticed that before the doctors treated me for any infection or disease, they always asked me to go for blood tests. At some point I began to admire the Laboratory staff, became very curious and always wondering on how important their job role was to my hospital treatment.
This experience inspired to decide to study Medical Laboratory Science as we called it then at University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan Nigeria where I met Olubukola, my wife.
What led you to start PathLab Support and what can you tell us about its mission and aims?
Akinola:
My wife and I are both sickle cell carriers, and there was a 25% chance of each of our three children being affected. Thankfully, it wasn’t the case for us as none of our children is affected with Sickle Cell Anaemia (HB-SS). It was this experience that inspired us to start PathLab Support in 2012 as way of giving back to the community.
PathLab’s mission is to improve the quality of healthcare for people living with sickle cell disease. We do this by
- Promoting Sickle Cell Disease awareness and blood donation awareness and the recruitment of new blood donors in order to address the national shortage of blood donors within the BAME communities in the UK.
- Promoting quality of patient care and Biomedical Science profession through education and training. We do this by providing career mentorship and virtual laboratory training for Biomedical Scientists, either UK or overseas-trained and are already in the UK searching for work as well as for anyone abroad planning to relocate.
- We also give back to our country of origin, Nigeria where Sickle Cell Disease is prevalent. We do this by providing hospital care and support for sick children in Nigeria through offsetting hospital bills and donating toys and gifts.
Can you tell us about the books you have both written?
Akinola:
My book titled ‘Beyond the Workplace: How to impact the community using your passion and career skills’ was written and published in November 2021. I wrote it to encourage people to think outside their workplaces and see how to improve the life of others through social action and community engagement activities.
Olu is also a published author; in 2022 she published her book titled: Take Hold of Your Life: Simple Mindset Shifts to Empower You To Be in Charge of Your Life’ her passion to support or improve the mental health and wellbeing of people inspired her to write it.
Why do you think Black History Month and why this year’s theme (saluting our sisters) is so important?
Akinola:
Many black people living in the UK have used and are still using their passion and career skills to make positive contributions to British society and lifestyle by doing a lot of amazing things. So, Black History Month is important to recognise and celebrate the great achievements of these amazing people and to celebrate black heritage, history, equality and diversity in the society.
Olu:
As a woman, I am really pleased with this year’s theme. The huge contributions of women and most especially black women in any society cannot be overemphasized. Women are natural leaders, life givers, and the backbone behind a successful family, community and our society.
Saluting Our Sisters, to me means to highlight and celebrate the important roles, great achievements and positive contributions of black women to the British history and society. This year Black History Month is a time to intentionally celebrate and remember how black women who are change-makers using their passion, education, and career skills in different spheres of life to shape our communities and make the society a better place to be. This celebrating is also important to me as it will encourage and inspire more black women to do more.
Being a black woman and a Biomedical Scientist, I have also gone above and beyond my workplace to impact my immediate community positively, by using my career experience of many years to support upcoming scientists through mentoring. Being a blood donor myself, I promote the importance of blood donation. As a counsellor, I use my skills to support and improve the mental health of people within BAME communities.
I will therefore encourage more black women including our young women to take initiatives to improve the life of other people and transform the society. I would like to see the vital contributions of black women towards transforming the society to be recognised and celebrated in workplaces and by professional organisations. This should be done every day and not only during special occasions like Black History Month.
In 2021 Akinola and Olu won the Wellbeing Advocate award from the National BAME Health & Care Award.