Travel Scholarship Part Two: Change of plans!

After going through the process of applying for the travel scholarship and finding out the great news that I had been successful, I was able to start making plans of where I was going to go and what I wanted to get out of the experience.

Unfortunately very quickly after I had applied for the scholarship the full impact of the COVID 19 pandemic took hold and this put an end to all travel.

While this was disappointing, it did give me a bit more time to consider what it was I really wanted to get from this scholarship. This delayed my start of the fellowship by 12 months, but actually I was still able to explore and develop my network in a slightly different way using a virtual platform. If it wasn't for the 12 month delay then there would have been aspects of the fellowship I would have missed out on.

Following this period of reflection and planning I was able to rally and come back a fresh in the new year. I had made my plans and started to pencil in some dates of places I wanted to visit and what I wanted to get from them.

My final travel itinerary included:

Edinburgh Cancer Centre: Visit the chronic cancer pain clinic and shadow the author of the European cancer pain management guidelines.

Bath Pain related complex cancer late effects rehabilitation service

Chicago Northwestern Hospital to work with nursing lead for the cancer pain service.