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Scientist Danny is rising star of NHS

Friday 22 February 2019

DANNY Gaskin is living proof that hard work pays off.

The first-class graduate is a star in the biomedical world, a multi-award nominee and inspiration to young scientists through his role Institute of Biomedical Science.

But it wasn’t always that way. The 26-year-old worked seven days a week to pay his way through his degree at the University of Salford. Even getting to Uni was tough.

“The challenge for me was getting back into education after having not done well at school. I only had a D in maths and D in science at GCSE so I had to save up to take myself back to college part-time. Even then I only got my Salford Uni place through clearing,” he says.

Awards

At Uni, he was nominated by the International Federation of Biomedical Laboratory Science for its Student Award, 2018 – the only UK student to earn the honour.

Within a year of graduating  - working at Furness General Hospital, he has again been nominated, this time for the UK Advancing Healthcare Awards Rising Star 2019 award.

In both cases, he was nominated by the professional body the Institute of Biomedical Science, which says Danny has shown a level of initiative, skill and commitment that is “truly exceptional”. The award is open to any healthcare professional or scientist who has been working for less than 5 years, and Danny is down to the final eight!

He put his success down to sheer hard work, he says: “At Uni I was working Mon-Fri on placement with no salary and working all day Saturday and Sunday to earn money to pay my bills. It was very hard. I was working 7 days a week.”

Inspiring others 

On top of his studies, Danny was course rep, committee member of both the University of Salford Bioscience Society and the Medicine Society, and president of the Institute of Biomedical Science-affiliated Biomedical Science Careers Group.

Today Danny works closely with the Institute of Biomedical Science to inspire more students to pursue careers in the profession. From featuring in case studies to running Twitter chats on what it’s like to work in bioscience.

He recently contributed to a series of articles in the Nursing Standard that offer solutions to common problems and ‘avoidable errors’ in the lab, and still returns to Salford to give talks to students.

Lucy Smyth, his former programme leader at Salford’s School of Environment & Life Sciences, said: “I couldn’t be more proud of Danny. He showed the utmost commitment and maturity throughout his studies at Salford, he is a proactive collaborator with his study peers, university staff and his professional body

Find out more

Gareth Hollyman, Senior Press & PR Officer (Science)

0161 295 6895 g.b.hollyman@salford.ac.uk