The Last One

This is the last blog I will be writing as your President, and it seems like a good time to look back on the last 2 years to reflect on how things have gone. I certainly do feel that I’ve grown and hopefully developed personally and a lot has happened.

Being the BNMS President has been one of the best things I’ve ever done. But if you read these blogs from the beginning, you will know that at the start I didn’t feel too confident I could do it. In fact, those first couple of months I was pretty overwhelmed by the Imposter Syndrome – and wrote about it in my second blog. I felt very much that I wasn’t good enough – and found it hard not to compare myself to other Past Presidents and felt very inferior. The thought of writing a monthly blog was frankly terrifying. But in the end, it’s probably one of the things I’ve enjoyed the most. After attending that session at the SNMMI on the Imposter Syndrome, I realised that constantly comparing myself to other people was a fool’s game and in fact, I should focus on things I myself do well. 

It wasn’t always easy at first though, I have to admit, but instead of trying to emulate blogs written by other people, I focused on things I felt were important. I drew from my own experiences – something we can all do and from the things people would say to me, I certainly was not alone in any of it. 

You all shared my frustrations with poor communication and care experienced by my lovely mum and appreciated the importance of maintaining the dignity of people in our care – as evidenced when my father was not properly covered when he was in hospital at the end. You were all with me when I lost Mammy last February. Thank you so much for all the lovely messages you sent – they did help.

The experience we all went through as a family really focused my mind on how we need to support older people, particularly those who are suffering from cognitive impairment. I definitely think there is more we can do to support patients who have dementia when they come to our departments. As I said at the time, please remember the extraordinary ordinary person they were before this disease started to steal them away. My mum only developed dementia in the last couple of years of her life. For all the years before she was Barbara Hepplewhite, hard-working teacher and lovely friend to all who were lucky enough to know her and the best mum my sister and I could have wished for. We are so lucky to have had her for so long.

You also heard recently about my friend who was recently diagnosed with cancer. Again, this really makes you stop and think about what is important – both in how we care for our patients and in life generally in how we look after ourselves and support our loved ones. 

You also may know how passionate I am about us being inclusive. In all ways. We work in a caring profession and should care for all our patients without judgement. In fact, I feel we need to do more than not judge people – we should support people. You may already know my son is gay. He has many friends within the LGTBQ+ community, including some who are trans. I can proudly state here and now that I am and always will be, a trans ally. Because I care for people, and don’t like to see anyone being targeted as I feel they are. We have people coming into and indeed, working in, our departments who will identify in all sorts of different ways. Our business is not to judge them; it’s to care for and support them. End of. 

One thing which happened over the last couple of years has to be mentioned. It is something I consider to be a huge and terrible blot on the landscape of our history as a country. These were the riots that happened after the tragic and senseless murder of those poor young girls in Southport. Those families will never recover from what happened to their daughters – as a parent, the thought of it tears me up now as I write this. But what happened afterwards was by no means justified in any way. Outraged doesn’t even come close - I really hope we never see anything like that again. But as so often seems to be said at the moment, the world is changing, and we are looking ahead at uncertain times everywhere. All we can do is pull together and support each other and our patients as best we can. For now, I would just like to reiterate that Nuclear Medicine needs all of you and rather than the colour of your skin or your religion being something that makes you a target, I think it is something that makes you a special part of our wonderful, diverse, Nuclear Medicine community. 

Something that happened more recently was the Molybdenum shortage. This was a tough time for many of us, but we achieved something remarkable together. We managed to work together across the various borders within our country to redistribute the available activity so that patient appointments were prioritised according to clinical need in all areas. I know if was tough, but it was absolutely the right thing to do. I really feel it is something we should be proud of – and I do think it set a precedent for how this sort of shortage would be managed in the future. 

Going back to the Imposter Syndrome – if anything could hammer home that we all have our own strengths and should play to them, then this did it for me. It made me finally stop comparing myself to other people, because I do feel that this event was something I was well placed to deal with. But I couldn’t have done it without you getting on board with it. Thank you so much to you all. 

I’ve also been trying to think about what it means to be a BNMS member. Obviously, I love our Society and want everyone to join! But apart from cheaper conference rates, what is the benefit to you? So, we introduced our pre-conference members event, which went so well in Belfast that we are doing it again in Glasgow. We also introduced our monthly Research Webinars, which have been very popular. I hope we will continue these on other subjects – watch this space. 

We’re looking to see what we can do to act upon the things you told us were important to you through our members survey. Unsurprisingly, the biggest concerns related to workforce. Whilst BNMS can’t solve all the problems, we can definitely take the lead in looking at what can be done and trying to get some action taken. 

I will be handing the chain of office over at the end of the Glasgow conference to a more than worthy successor; Sabina Dizdarevic. Without Sabina, I would never have put my name forward to be BNMS President. It was she who first encouraged me. She is someone who is not only a bright shining star in the world of Nuclear Medicine, she is something even more special. She is a good friend, and someone who supports other women. 

If you aren’t already registered, please have a think about coming up to join me for my last conference as BNMS President – it really would be great to see you. 
So, as I finish this last blog, my hope is that you have all felt supported by me and by our Society. I hope that when times have been tough you have felt that BNMS is somewhere you can look to for leadership, help and advice. And when good things happen, I want BNMS to celebrate them with you, so please do share these things with us. 

But most of all, the thing I want most fervently to leave behind is the feeling that our Society belongs to you. To each and every one of you. It is a Society for us all. It is a Society where all professional groups are equally valued. 

It’s certainly been the Society for me, and it’s been the privilege of my life to have been lucky enough to act as your leader for the last two years. Thank you all so much for everything. I can’t finish this by saying until next time. So, I will just finish by signing off and saying as I’ve said many times before, always be kind. And thank you.