MY DREAM HAS A PRICE
Student Kera’s brave struggle
Kera Sherwood-O’Regan is a driven young woman. A self-confessed “overachiever”, she’s worked in human rights and public health but says if she could look into the future, she knows what she would want to see.
Her dream is to become a doctor, assisting everyday Kiwis with their health concerns while also having an impact on the country’s health policies. But the journey has been hard and it’s about to get even harder.
Kera (25) is one of at least 30 medical students affected by a cap on student loan borrowing. The current law states that students can borrow for seven full years’ worth of study – eight for medical students – but beyond that, they must finance their remaining years. One year of study can cost $17,000.
It’s a policy that puts Kera in a tricky situation. A medical degree covers a span of five to six years, however many students complete prior study before entering a medical degree in a range of fields. Currently in her third year of medicine, Kera has reached that loan cap due to previously completing a Bachelor of Arts degree where she majored
in political science and anthropology “doing international relations and public health”, she says.
“It was so valuable in giving me a good foundation. It enhanced my critical thinking and understanding of how the world really works. But partway through the degree, the idea of medicine kept coming back to me. And one of the things I felt I was missing was the opportunity to do something more hands on, something that had a direct relationship to my community.”
Yet to even enter into medicine, Kera had to overcome further struggles, this time with her own health. Since the age of 16, she had battled constant illnesses that resulted in her having to take time out of study and work.
“Recurrent chest infections, respiratory illnesses, chronic fatigue, back pain, you name it,” she tells. “My late teenage years were spent at heaps of different doctors on antibiotics and the exhaustion was put down to being a serial over-committer,” she chuckles.
But it wasn’t until completing her first degree that she hit rock bottom. “I’d managed to get a job at Amnesty International – another dream of mine. But the same old symptoms began to show and I experienced a couple of migraines which landed me in hospital. I also suffered from back spasms and when I was writing, it would feel like someone was pouring boiling water in my veins.”
Kera had to give up her job and move back in with her parents as her health quickly deteriorated. But upon meeting her current GP, she began to get some answers.
“She was the first doctor who really listened to me. She wanted to know what I thought about my illness and how it made me feel,” she says tearing up. “What she did for me still makes me emotional!”
In 2013 and after several tests, Kera was finally given a diagnosis of fibromyalgia.
The chronic condition can see sufferers experience amplified pain in times of stress and some with the condition are known to live in constant agony.
But despite her prognosis, the diagnosis and care by her doctor only inspired Kera to continue working towards her goal of becoming a doctor.
She officially entered medicine in 2016, and has since put her heart and soul into her studies, despite having to take another year off due to glandular fever.
“The only reason I’ve been able to get here is the support of my family and friends, who
have been incredible,” tells Kera. “As for my doctor, I would like one day to be able to do for other people what she has been able to do for me.”
The Auckland student explains she is campaigning to have the cap removed for medical students in a similar position to her, so they can all achieve their dream of helping their communities.
“Graduate students are a massive aspect of medicine. About a quarter to a third of our medical class are graduate students and there’s a reason for that – they bring a different perspective, a different set of skills and life experience. It’s really important for us to have that diversity amongst our medical workforce.
“I’m working in Maori public health at the moment, and I never would have been able to do that if I didn’t have my previous degree and taken the pathway I did,” she says.
As for what’s next for her,
Kera is unsure as to how she will fund her remaining studies. Fundraising, she says, is a last-ditch effort. The hope is that the law will change in enough time for her and her peers not to fall behind.
“I know I’ve got a huge amount of privilege and
I‘d like to turn that into good, including having a positive influence on the system and the patients that are in it. I don’t want my education to go to waste. I know how much work needs to be done.”
‘ I don’t want my education to go to waste and I know what needs to be done’