Lung Health Group Pre-MSc Research Intern, Fanuel Bickton, has been awarded the prestigious 30-months Wellcome International Master’s Fellowship. Fanuel is a physiotherapy graduate from the University of Malawi, College of Medicine (COM).
As a Fellow, he will spend the first 12 months undertaking a taught Master of Science (MSc) course in Cardiorespiratory Physiotherapy at the University College London (UCL) in the United Kingdom (UK). Dr Harriet Shannon, the Programme Lead for Cardiorespiratory Physiotherapy Education at UCL, will supervise Fanuel on the course.
After completing his MSc, Fanuel will be based at MLW within the Lung Health Group where he will spend the last 18 months of his Fellowship undertaking a research project under the supervision of Dr Jamie Rylance (Lung Health Group Lead at MLW), Mr Enock Chisati (Senior Lecturer and Head of Physiotherapy Department at COM), and Professor Sally Singh (Professor of Pulmonary and Cardiac Rehabilitation at the University of Leicester, UK). Fanuel’s work will focus on testing a culturally appropriate pulmonary rehabilitation programme among adults with functionally limiting chronic respiratory diseases in Malawi.
“This is a landslide victory and I am on cloud 9! It is a victory not only for me but also for the Lung Health Group at MLW and Malawi’s entire physiotherapy community which I represent. The Fellowship award comes only a few weeks after also being nominated by the Commonwealth Scholarship Commission in the UK for the award of its prestigious Commonwealth MSc Scholarship. These achievements are a tribute to my grit, peer support, and first-class mentorship from supervisors (Dr Rylance, Mr Chisati, Dr Shannon, and Prof Singh) who believe in me. I am grateful to the MLW Training and Development Team for giving the pre-MSc internship opportunity in the Lung Health Group which gave me the much-needed winning edge for the Fellowship application.”
“The Fellowship gives me an opportunity to be trained in a field I am passionate about at an internationally recognized academic centre of excellence. It gives me a chance to form networks with experts in Cardiorespiratory Physiotherapy which will serve as a platform for sharing expertise in the field and expanding my professional horizons. The MSc course I will undertake at UCL will prepare me for a leadership role in combating non-communicable diseases in Malawi through rehabilitation interventions that are based on locally derived research evidence. I cannot wait to embark on this rewarding career.”
