David Gammel, came from the military, recovered from a serious accident and is now a qualified Diagnostic Radiographer….

I had an accident in 2002 falling off a container ship at Ipswich docks. Before that I was in the military. I left the military one month before I had the accident and the accident actually caused a subdural haematoma in my brain which is a small bleed. After that for many years I had 5 operations on my head. It took probably about 6 years to walk and talk again and it left me with partial sight and partial hearing and a big metal plate in my head.

For me the reason I applied to go to university was because I was out of work for so long with lots of operations on my head. I remember one day I had an x-ray done on my head and it was done by a student and that’s when the penny dropped and I thought I would quite like to do this. The experience applying for the degree was quite challenging but fairly straightforward and there is a lot of help there if you need it. For me because I left school and joined the military I didn’t do any further education so I had to do an additional year to give me qualifications to apply for university.

At my graduation I felt very proud and nervous actually. It’s been a long journey for me; 12 years since I had my accident and now it’s gone full circle and I’m now a fully qualified radiographer. I am still living with the consequences, I have just adapted.

David graduated from The University of Suffolk. Read his full story.

Why study with the University of Suffolk?

• Excellent employability and 100% overall student satisfaction in the National Student Survey (NSS) 2019
• 60% placement time, with placements throughout Suffolk, Essex, Norfolk and Cambridgeshire
• Dedicated practice Educators at each placement to support your learning and development
• Opportunities to study abroad on the ERASMUS exchange in year 3 (subject to availability)

Find out more about studying BSc (Hons) Diagnostic Radiography at the University of Suffolk