Lifelong dream to be a doctor
OLORUNTUNMIKE Otitolola Adetona, better known as Tunmike, was born and raised in Nigeria. She grew up in a loving and supportive family and is an optimist who enjoys the simple things in life. It was her lifelong dream to be a doctor.
When she was in high school, her teacher once told her mother, “I don’t think she can study medicine, she’s just not smart enough.” Tunmike decided that she was not going to stand for that.
She was persistent, worked hard, surrounded herself with positive-minded people and maintained her dream of helping others.
What propelled her further to the cause was seeing how weak and frail patients could become due to terminal illness as well as the state of the Nigerian healthcare system, where many people die from various preventable causes.
Now armed with a passion for health policymaking towards advancing the healthcare systems of developing countries, Tunmike crossed the continent to pursue her medical degree at the RCSI
& UCD Malaysia Campus (RUMC) in Penang, Malaysia.
Being a foreign student in a new country (and continent) was not easy.
She experienced a huge culture shock, as anyone would. However, she believed the experience would be to her benefit.
She found joy in learning a new language and built a large network of friends from across the globe.
The course of her undergraduate studies saw her travelling to Dublin, Ireland, where she undertook her pre-clinical studies for two and a half years.
Later, she returned to Penang for the clinical phase and had the opportunity to engage patients at the hospitals in Penang, Seberang Perai, and Taiping.
Tunmike held her ground, keeping a positive mindset as she worked hard and enjoyed the process. In June this year, her dream finally came true when she was conferred a medical degree.
In addition to graduating, Tunmike made it to the Dean’s List and bagged the first place awards in both Paediatrics and Psychiatry.
The young doctor plans to expand her horizons further by taking up internship opportunities in Ireland or the UK.
About the RCSI & UCD Malaysia campus
RUMC is a private medical university owned and established by the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland and University College Dublin – two world-renowned medical universities.
Established as the Penang Medical College in 1996, RUMC was awarded university status by the Malaysian Ministry of Higher Education as a Foreign University Branch Campus in 2018, one of the highest levels for a foreign-owned institution in Malaysia.
RUMC remains the only Irish university in the region. It is recognised by both the Malaysian Medical Council and Irish Medical Council for graduating high-performing doctors.
Its students are recognised for practice in countries such as the US and Canada by the ECFMG and FAIRMER.
The institution is also listed as an Irish medical school in the World Directory of Medical Schools.