ANDREW KAY
When I was young I moved from the west coast of Scotland to Hong Kong.
Living in Hong Kong was an experience. The people and culture fascinated me. I loved everything from Seiko watches to walkie-talkies, cassette recorders, chemistry sets, microscopes, and telescopes.
The contrast between extremes in poverty and wealth tuned me into a lack of equity of access to education and wealth at a young age.
Witnessing the arrival of Vietnamese refugees on overcrowded ships to escape war had a significant impact on me, too. I saw the resilience of the human spirit in surviving and thriving against the odds.
I moved back to the UK from Hong Kong to Lyme Regis in Dorset. I loved reading. I wanted to be a writer like John Fowles ( The Magus, The French Lieutenant`s Woman), who lived in Lyme, too.
I was good at sports and excelled in swimming, rugby, cross-country running, and athletics. The 400m was my best distance, and my sporting hero was Alberto Juantorena.
Following "work experience" as a petrol pump attendant ( a job I enjoyed), I left The Wooodroffe Comprehensive School at 16, unsure what to do next.
I worked various jobs as a roofer, farm labourer, and in bars. After working on a factory production line making a Shipham`s Chicken Paste Sandwich Spread, I continued my education.
After travelling around Yugoslavia, Greece, and Turkey, I did A levels at Poole College of Further Education in Dorset. While waiting for my A-level results, I went travelling again, this time to the USA.
The west coast of the USA was amazing for an 18-year-old. More sailing, this time from the marina in Sausalito out into the Bay of San Francisco. Hiking and climbing in the National Parks of Lake Tahoe, Yosemite, Nevada, The Canyonlands to the Idaho wilderness of the Sawtooth Mountains and then Aspen, Colorado.
I read Natural Sciences-Molecular and Cellular Biology, Biochemistry, Organic Chemistry, and Mathematics, and Medicine at St Thomas` Hospital Medical School in London.