Inspiring the Future: Retired Podiatrist, David Tollafield volunteers to inspire young people

Not everybody ends up doing what they thought they would when they were a child, just like David Tollafield. David had wanted to grow up to be a veterinary surgeon, but he ended up taking a completely different route and became a Podiatric Surgeon.

Whilst volunteering at two schools, David explained to the children what a Podiatrist does and brought to life the interesting world of Podiatry. He explained that as an Allied Health Professional, it is one of the few roles where surgeons are not qualified as medical doctors, even though they have medical training and require a degree.

David showed them a career option that they hadn’t known existed. “I didn’t know you could be a podiatrist,” said one girl.

During his career talks, David emphasised that there are hundreds of different roles within Healthcare and that it is not just Doctors and Nurses. He explained that there are individuals who work with patients on the front-line and also individuals working behind-the-scenes to help keep our medical institutions running.

David is now retired and spoke to the young people about what this means and how he now spends his time.

After volunteering at these events, David had this to say: “I registered with Inspiring the Future, to be honest, before this I hadn’t thought about how important it is to get children inspired about future careers at a young age. Then I realised it made complete sense and wanted to engage in the challenge.”

Inspiring the Future has a community of over 35,000 volunteers from a huge range of jobs across the UK. All have a story to tell about why they want to help inspire young people to do the jobs they love. If you’re in an Allied Health Profession and want to inspire young people about these fantastic careers, please sign up to volunteer here.