Episode 38: Student Experience Grant Specials - Greig

'Apex 5 Expeditition' tells the story of Greig who discusses coping at high altitude, persevering when things go wrong, and becoming a better doctor. 
 
Each episode is a snapshot, a moment, a sneak inside the minds of five inspiring people who did exceptional things, unexpected things, things that transformed them during their time at Edinburgh.

The people who share their reflections have set up businesses, shared their passions with others, designed projects to make a difference, expanded their skills, travelled far and pushed themselves beyond what they thought they were capable of.

For this special edition of Multi Story, the experiences our guests share all have one thing in common: support from a grants scheme, funded by Edinburgh alumni and friends. Student Experience Grants have been supporting staff and student projects at the University of Edinburgh for 10 years. To celebrate this milestone we wanted to reflect on some of the inspiring things our students have achieved.

Find out more about the Student Experience Grants at:
www.ed.ac.uk/student-experience-grants

Transcript

[Theme music]  

00:07 
This is a snapshot, a moment, a sneak inside the minds of five inspiring people, people who did exceptional things, unexpected things, things that transformed them during their time, at Edinburgh. 

00:20
My name is Greg Torpey, I'm a doctor over in the west of Scotland. When I came into Med school, I had no knowledge that I would end up running an expedition to South America, it never crossed my mind. I certainly liked the outdoors and I've been involved in scouting since I was very young, but never thought that would be part of Med school. You know, I came into it thinking lots of lectures, lots of books, lots of exams. But as I moved through it and experienced different things, and then got involved with the practical sides, I realised that actually this was just as important to, to a career in medicine as the, the learning. The physical bits of Med school, including the expedition, taught me skills of communication, of working with others, of resilience and organisation that, that classroom learning would never have taught me in itself, and certainly made me a far more holistic doctor, you know, well-rounded and a better clinician at the end of the day. So certainly, when I came into Med school, my thoughts of what I was going to do, and after six years, what I did there were very, very different. 

01:32
The APEX expedition was an altitude research expedition that six of us organised whilst at Med school, and we went to Bolivia in South America during the summer of 2017. The main aim was to research how altitude impacts on various medical conditions, including the lungs, the blood, and my project was on, on psychology. There was a range of projects that we did and I think in total, we covered eight different projects. The APEX expedition took around 30 student volunteers to about 5000 feet above sea level for 10 days. The individuals experienced high altitude, and as such altitude sickness, and that was part of the aim of the trip, was to to allow these individuals who were fit and healthy to experience this in order to test our hypotheses and complete our projects of the impact of high altitude. 

02:35
My area looked at how personality traits could affect how you respond to high altitude. So if people were, had traits that were more neurotic or anxious at sea level, we anticipated that at high altitude, these traits would be heightened. The theory was if we could train people to deal with this and understand the personality that when individuals went to high altitude they would, could recognise management of their, you know, anxiety in, in a different way, rather than just the physical but also the mental impact of high altitude. 

03:16
When we were up in the Bolivian Andes, the, some of the main challenges were there was 35 of us in a very enclosed space, and the food was not great, and we were obviously very enclosed lots people weren't unwell and got things like diarrhea. And the supporting your, your volunteers and your colleagues and your friends through that is, it takes its emotional toll. You know, we had 10 days of being up there and supporting each other and you're trying to make friends and support the volunteers whilst also they're, you know, participants in research and you have to take their blood and get them to partake in questionnaires, and it is tiring. At high altitude we know that people sleep poorly. That's, that's an accepted thing and when you're sleep-deprived, and at high altitude feeling sick, your stress goes up and your ability to be compassionate and kind definitely is a struggle. And it's a, it requires a lot of patience and taking time and allowing people to have that space to vent as well. 

04:34
My experiment had a lot of paper involved, daily questionnaires and physically getting that paper up, you know it's heavy in itself and then getting everyone to participate in it and gather, and then interpret that onto a laptop, all whilst we're feeling unwell at altitude and making sure we don't make any mistakes in the data collection whilst there. And all of this is easy to do when you're well and have a good night's sleep at home, but when you go to 5000 feet and you've had about two-hour sleep and you can't get to sleep, and then you've got to look at an Excel spreadsheet all day, it's very challenging.

05:15
While we're in country, we actually had a very last minute change of location of stay due to, due to a blocked road. It was a bit unfortunate that this change in location probably impacted my, my research a bit. Obviously, the safety of our volunteers is paramount and we couldn't go up to Chacaltaya when it was blocked with ice, it did mean that, our, our research was slightly impacted. But it's certainly given a start, a grounding for the future of psychology research, whilst at altitude. 

05:48
The APEX expedition was probably one of the best experiences of my life. And you know, I've done, I've done a variety of things with scouts and within Med school and holidays, but APEX 5 was definitely the most worthwhile thing I've done. And the most exciting thing I've done. Myself and the five others that organised it formed an incredible bond and that was, was one of the most worthwhile things that came out of it. We worked together and you know, we were spread over three different years, we were, we were, we became incredibly close. And we were all very proud of what we achieved. 

06:28
The, after the 10 days up in the Andes we, we all travelled and that was phenomenal. It was nice to have, after three years of hard work, collected data that we'd been working towards and be able to just relax in a beautiful country with some great new friends. And you know, looking back, it was it was tough at times, but I wouldn't have you know, I wouldn't have changed it for the world. And it was a phenomenal, phenomenal experience. 

06:58
I think it altered how I work, made me far more skilled at organising, fitting in, made me a much better communicator with people of, you know, of all ages and all backgrounds and also may be far more resilient. It's funny looking back at the young Greig that had started Med school, and how you know, at Med school itself you develop, but experience like this really tested me and tested us all and has taught me to persevere with, with things if you think the outcome is going to be good. So it has a big, had a big  impact on how, how I think even as now as a clinician I, I act and how I, you know, deal with patients, and certainly made me much more resilient, which has been particularly useful, given the current pandemic and dealing with that whilst as a, as a clinician. 

07:57
My career aims are mostly in acute medicine or emergency medicine and next year, it will be in August, I'm moving down to Ayr to start a job in, in A&E there. And certainly, the past two years have been, have been a lot of fun as a doctor. And I've learned a lot I've had a lot of tough experiences, a lot of good experiences, and certainly, I'm glad where I've have come and the, I think my time at university and the things I did at university have really helped develop me as a clinician and supported me in these first two years as a doctor.

[Theme music]  

08:31 
We all have role models, people we look up to, people who encourage us, or who leave a mark on our life. We asked our podcast guests who inspires them. 

08:43 
Particularly over the last year and a half we've had a turbulent time within, within medicine itself, and we've had lots of, lots of challenges. I think of, of late, the most inspiring person I can think of is actually a patient. Now, I won't say their name for confidentiality reasons, but she was in hospital with a non-COVID issue. She had an issue that was very, very difficult to deal with. Now, she didn't have COVID and she never had COVID while in there, but she was an indirect, she had an indirect effect from COVID - she didn't see her family because the hospitals were closed. And despite the horrible situation she found herself in, everyday she remained positive. There were weeks and weeks that we had no progress, and she, you know, she had every right to be a, to be broken, to be a broken patient. But we supported her and reassured her that we will get there and she, she persisted. And it's one of the most inspiring patient experiences that I've ever had, and that even despite all these adversities, she didn't let it break her and she continued to be, to be strong and optimistic and finally had a good outcome and I think it's a great, a great message about, for all of us doctors in the past few, few months that even in the hardest situations and the toughest, the toughest situations you find yourself in you know, you can, you can persevere and hopefully, at the end will get a good outcome. 

[Theme music]  

10:23 
Our podcast guests were supported by Student Experience Grants, one-off awards that help fund innovative projects that help students make the most of their time at Edinburgh. The grants are funded by Edinburgh alumni and friends. Without their generosity, the scheme would not exist. Have you been inspired by the story? Are you a student or member of staff looking for funding? Search - Student Experience Grants - on the University website to find out how to apply for support. Thank you for listening. And thank you to the donors who make the Student Experience Grants possible. 

Transcribed by https://otter.ai