Girl with no hope who turned her life round and became a doctor
Alcoholic at 13, school dropout at 14. Her father left home and her mother fought mental illness. But Jo’s determination should inspire us all …
WITH a mother who was in and out of hospital with mental health problems and a father who had left the home, there was no one to keep Jo Barton in check.
The teenager was on a downward spiral – an alcoholic at 13 who dropped out of school at 14 and had no qualifications.
Yet today, she is a qualified doctor after taking a six-year medical degree course that many from privileged backgrounds struggle to win a place on.
Dr Barton’s medical ambitions were fired up when she took a job as a healthcare assistant and she has never looked back.
Now 32, she has spoken for the first time about turning her life around, in the hope of inspiring others. ‘If you come from nothing there are options if you are willing to put the effort in,’ she said.
‘It was a struggle and I am not going to tell anyone it is easy – I used to study for my exams on the Central Line. It’s the way you think about it. Always, what was in my head was, “If I don’t do this then it’s all gone and I am back to square one. If I give up then I am going to be left with nothing”.’
Dr Barton grew up in Harlow, Essex, but with her father moving to Yorkshire when she was 11 and her mother often sectioned with bipolar disorder, she and her older sister were frequently left to their own devices. She fell into a ‘pit of depression’ and admits becoming a ‘nightmare teen’, drinking ‘every single day’ from 13.
‘I started bunking off school a lot when I was 14 and then one day I just never turned up,’ she said. ‘Nowadays it wouldn’t happen. We only had one person from social services who came round, and when they saw I was adamant I wasn’t going back to school they found me an unpaid job.’
That job, in a record shop, failed to materialise, however, because the manager who had offered it moved on and the teenager ended up ‘drinking and smoking weed’ as she hung out with older people. The authorities never checked back on her.
She managed to avoid coming to the attention of police despite stealing from shops, including picking up all her Christmas gifts by shoplifting one year.
The turning point came at 17 after sinking into a depression that left her sitting in her bedroom all the time and losing all her friends.
‘I was going to kill myself. I’d planned it. Then, I don’t know why, I just thought, “Why not give it one last shot?” ’ she said. ‘I also don’t think I could have done it because of my mum.’
Her first job in a restaurant ended after only a month because she was such a poor waitress – although it was there that she met her partner of 15 years, Daniel Leitch, 38, a warehouse worker, who always supported her ambitions.
Next, she looked for healthcare jobs because no experience was required. She became an assistant at St Catharines Care Home in Broxbourne, Hertfordshire, where she was able to train for an NVQ in care at the same time.
Two years later she was awarded the qualification and, filled with confidence, successfully applied for a part-time job on an elderly care ward at Princess Alexandra Hospital in Harlow.
At the same time she landed a place on an access-to-nursing course at a college in Enfield, North London, having studied for the necessary maths and English GCSEs. To make ends meet, she worked 60-hour weeks and snatched moments wherever she could to study – including on the tube journeys to the course.
She said: ‘You don’t really get support in college and I just got on with it. I had about one meal a day and that’s effectively how I survived. There were lots of times when I wanted to quit but if I did that then I would have got nothing.’
The final year was the hardest – her mother had been taken off her medication and was sectioned again, meaning the exhausted student had to commute to visit her while also studying.
She passed her exams despite the enormous pressure and a new fork in the road opened up for her when a surgeon at Princess Alexandra Hospital allowed her to watch some procedures, unleashing a desire to become a doctor.
She was accepted on the six-year medicine course at St George’s Hospital in London, graduating three years ago. She now works in A&E at Princess Alexandra Hospital, although the long hours and regular night shifts mean she is now considering becoming a GP.
Dr Barton, who now lives in Sawbridgeworth, Hertfordshire, believes she might never have become a doctor if life had been easier. ‘I kind of found medicine and I don’t think I would have found it if I had a normal life,’ she said.
She also feels her experiences help her communicate with patients, who, along with nurses, are told to use her first name because she ‘cringes’ when people use her professional title.
‘ I am quite good with depressed patients and that’s because of my past. I am not your average doctor as I’m quite common and I think that helps.’
Two years ago a survey of 22 medical schools found that 80 per cent of students were raised in households containing professionals or people in higher managerial roles, and more than a quarter had been to private schools.
Dr Jonathan Refson, the surgeon who allowed her to watch some operations, said: ‘I am delighted that Jo has succeeded in becoming a doctor.’
A spokesman for Princess Alexandra Hospital said: ‘Jo’s story is proof that people from all walks of life can achieve their dreams – her story is one to inspire the next generation to go into medicine.’
‘If I had quit, I’d have nothing’