Pharmacy student Ramona Saleh turned to the Hope Winch Benevolence Fund when experiencing serious financial difficulties that started to have a negative impact on her day to day life.
The Fund provided her the crucial financial safety net that allowed her to concentrate on her studies and to complete an unpaid placement that would lead her to her pre-registration year.
Ramona, 22, was living outside Sunderland struggling with her daily commute into the city.
She explained: “Having to commute every day into Sunderland took me about an hour and a half each way, and has been particularly difficult closer to exams as I felt like it was taking away from my studying time.
“Thanks to the Hope Winch Benevolence Fund, I was able to rent a room in Sunderland for my final year of the pharmacy degree, which will allow me to stay in the library for longer and spend more time focusing on coursework and revision instead of commuting. This is extremely beneficial to me since fourth year weights 60% of the final degree and therefore I will be needing all the extra time to go towards my academic work.”
She added: “Not having to worry anymore about having a place to live during my final year of university has made a great difference to my life. I was able to spend the second term of third year working on my dissertation, completing coursework and revising for exams, instead constantly feeling anxious about not being able to cover next year’s rent.”
The Fund also allowed Ramona to accept an unpaid pharmacy placement during the summer. Without the money from the scholarship she would have had to work full-time in order to be able to cover the costs of her next year’s rent.
“I was offered a pharmacy pre-registration year with the condition that I first complete an unpaid placement,” she said. “In my opinion the pre-registration year plays a great role in moulding future pharmacists and being able to secure the pre-reg position that I wanted was a dream came true.”
She concluded: “I would like to thank the Hope Winch Benevolence Fund and everyone sponsoring it for allowing me to have this amazing opportunity. Being awarded a scholarship has made a huge impact on many aspects of my life and I couldn’t be more grateful for it.”