Pick up my UCAS personal statement today and you’d be forgiven for thinking I’d booked a flight to CERN and was halfway to a career in particle physics. Instead, when I arrived at Nottingham to study Physics, the breadth of topics available and the freedom and flexibility of my course opened my eyes to opportunities I had never really considered, or even knew existed. A combination of an excellent department, enthusiastic lecturers and career opportunities, eventually lead me into medical physics.

As graduation approached I had two main options: train with the NHS for 3 years to become a qualified medical physicist, or take up a fully funded PhD in Biomedical Imaging at Oxford University. I decided on the latter, although I have many friends who opted to go down NHS route.

I’m still surprised by how little people know about medical physics as I am reminded every day of the large and direct impact it has on peoples’ lives. Medical physics is the basis of any technique we use to image the human body such as ultrasound, MRI or X-ray, as well as playing a crucial role in drug development, cancer treatment and understanding mental health, to name but a few. So far in my short 3 years of studying medical physics I’ve worked on projects involving Osteoporosis, Schizophrenia, Epilepsy and Cardiovascular disease. My current project involves trying to measure oxygen uptake in the brain using MRI, with the aim of improving treatment planning and outcome of stroke patients. We’ve recently had the go-ahead to scan our first NHS patient which is incredibly exciting.

I’m not sure if my future lies in academia but if reading my personal statement has taught me anything it’s that you can never predict the opportunities that are going to come your way or where you’re going to end up.

It’s been eighteen years since I left MTGS, though in some ways it only feels like a few! I went straight to Birmingham University and got my music degree, followed by a post grad year at The Royal Academy Of Music (musical theatre course). It was always the route I wanted to go, but along the way I was met with a number of people who tried to discourage me from such an unsteady career! Don’t get me wrong, a career in the performing arts is hard.really hard, and you have to want to do it more than anything else in the world. There are constant knock backs and people will criticise you to your face about your singing/acting/dance but, along the way, you develop a thick skin and when you do get offered a job, you forget the tougher days. It’s hard work but if you believe in yourself you can achieve anything in life.

I’ve been lucky, I have an incredibly supportive family, friends and partner. I’ve been fortunate enough to work pretty consistently in the business, from a two year stint at Les Miserables in the West End to shorter jobs up in Liverpool at the Everyman Theatre and The Royal Court, (the latter which incidentally has another ex MTGS girl working as casting director). I’ve worked on Cunard’s Queen Elizabeth, TV appearances, Buddy the musical, Cats (back in the day when I could still kick my leg high enough!) and now I’m touring the UK in Footloose the musical where I’m playing one of the leads. I get to see a different city every week, I get to catch up with old school friends along the way and perform to a wider variety of audiences. In this show I also get to play the piano, flute and sax as we are not only the actors on stage but we are also the band. These days my casting bracket has changed.  I’ve gone from playing the smaller character parts, or understudying the principal roles to being cast as the ‘mum’ parts….yes, I’m now at that awkward age, I’m embracing it.  These parts are usually more interesting anyway… at least that’s what I tell myself! My life is full, I have made tremendous friends over the years and continue to make more as I go from job to job, every day is different and I am hugely grateful for that.

In November I will take two months off, I will rest my voice, have some family time, join my partner on his tour for a while and actually have some ‘me’ time….after 11 months of doing a high energy show like Footloose, seven very fast costume changes per show 8 times a week, playing the sax whilst roller skating and dancing for an entire 80’s megamix at the end of the performance, I think I need a rest!

Nicky Swift