We are delighted to announce that Gareth Morgan from Bristol Children's Hospital has been awarded the 2008 Madeleine Steel Fellowship

Gareth will be leaving Bristol in late June 2008 to travel to the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto,Canada; where he will be beginning a two year fellowship specialising in interventional congenital cardiology.

This will give him the opportunity to spend a concentrated period of time becoming proficient in the most complex and cutting edge techniques in catheter based intervention.

Message from Gareth - March 2009

I have now been in Toronto for 8 months and the time has flown for me. Learning a new system and new way of approaching the difficult problems we face in paediatric cardiology has added another layer to my enthusiasm for the specialty. The Hospital for Sick Children ("Sick Kids") has an international reputation for academia and clinical results and the fellowship programme here is really committed to continued high level education, in a way that is just not feasible in the NHS. I would never slight our health education system back home; but a fellowship here does allow much more focus on training and research; as opposed to the much more apprenticeship based system that I experienced back home. Having both of these systems in my experience will hopefully stand me in good stead when I start looking for consultant posts in a year's time. I have also had the opportunity to experience life in a new and vibrant city, which has opened my eyes to a different culture whilst at the same time allowed me to appreciate the cultural subtleties of the British Isles.
One of the big difficulties with trainees in my position taking up these fellowships is certainly the funding and the large unsupported outlay at the begriming of the fellowship. I am enormously grateful to your family for the scholarship I received earlier this year. It has helped me to minimise the debt which a trainee incurs in order to further their training. I hope that this opportunity will continue to be available to my colleagues in the future, thanks to your support and hard work.

Best Wishes,

Yours Sincerely,

Gareth

Dr Gareth j Morgan
Clinical Fellow in Paediatric Cardiology