The Gift of Life: Changemaking in Medicine

Pioneering surgeon, liver transplant researcher and Old Leightonian, Dr Varuna Aluvihare, delivered the second of our 2023-24 changemaker talks on Thursday 5^th October as the Lower Sixth continued their Oakleaf Diploma Award journey.

Based in London, Varuna has been the Consultant Transplant Hepatologist and Hepatology Transplant lead at one of the world’s largest clinical-academic liver centres, The Institute of Liver Studies, Kings College Hospital since 2006. His research focuses on liver regeneration, immune dysfunction and cancer biology. He was the recipient of Medical Research Council (MRC) Fellowships at the world-renowned MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology at the University of Cambridge and has a body of academic publications to his name. He regularly appears on national and local media discussing public health issues relating to liver disease.

Varuna explained “I was giving a talk around ethical principles and challenges and a little bit about what it means to be a doctor and how those ethical principles and challenges arise in my day to day work and a little bit of inspirational stuff about working in an area that you want to work in because it’s going to be a huge part of your life and achieving your goals, in a good way.”

Recognising the experiences of many Lower Sixth formers,  he noted,  “This is a really formative time of your life and perhaps you don’t always recognise the reasons behind the challenges you face and the choices you make so I think any chance you have to reflect on those things and perhaps stand back and think about what challenges you want to meet and how you are going to meet the goals of those challenges.”

Espousing the belief that most of our education system does not really allow you to stand back and ask whether you are on the right journey and how to make the most of that journey, Varuna explained that Sixth Formers can get themselves onto the right pathway for success by accessing a broad education system and through courses like the Oakleaf Diploma. He continued, “Leighton Park certainly gave me a broad education system and allowed me to really reflect quite a lot on the things I wanted to achieve, how I might go about achieving them and whether they were meaningful.”

Bella was pleased to have gained some new knowledge from the experience reflecting: “I didn’t know that the liver transplant was the second ever organ transplant to happen. Even though I am not interested in becoming a doctor I found it intriguing to learn what goes on in the world of transplants, not just with liver but with other vital organs. It was interesting to learn what people have to go through to have a transplant. I found it very interesting. I would definitely encourage anyone to attend a changemaker talk; find out something new and enjoy it.”

Following the talk, fellow Sixth Former Alex enthused “The changemaker talk was really powerful; really interesting. It gave me interesting thoughts and processes on medicine. [Dr Aluvihare] kept it fun and intrigued the audience, like myself. As a speaker, I thought he was very confident, he projected his voice well and kept it fun, lively. He kept calling on people at the front which was quite funny. I wouldn’t mind hanging with him again. I think the changemaker talks are really important to learning how we grow as a person by being more intuitive and intrigued about the world around us.”