My Most Challenging Moments—-Former Minister’s Daughter

<p>My most challenging moments<br &sol;>&NewLine;<em><strong><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;openlife&period;ng&sol;">OpenLife Nigeria&comma;<&sol;a> in this chat&comma; presents some of the frustrating moments of Dr&period; Chichi Menakaya&comma; CEO and founder of Annomo Health&comma; an international premium medical concierge and daughter of former Minister of Health&comma; Dr&period; Tim Menakaya<&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><strong>Tell us briefly about your career journey&quest;<&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>My medical journey spans different continents&semi; <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;punchng&period;com&sol;">Africa&comma; Europe&comma; and America&period;<&sol;a> I completed my medical school in Nigeria at University College Hospital Ibadan&period; Ibadan laid a very solid foundation for me&period; During my extremely interesting journey in the UK&comma; I have had the opportunity to work in different parts of the UK and consolidated my foundation by working with mostly the best doctors in their specialities&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;I have been lucky to have been trained clinically to become a Trauma and Orthopaedic Surgeon but also had the opportunity to explore academic surgery for two years&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;Academic surgery was an amazing experience&period; It opened my eyes to the work needed to achieve milestones and make impact in medicine&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;My research work took me to Boston&comma; United States&period; The beauty of medicine is to always ask new questions&comma; strive for better and collaborate with others to make a positive change&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;I am lucky that till date I continue to work in an honorary capacity in Boston to bring about global change&period; As it stands&comma; we are currently working on a project that will revolutionise trauma care in developing countries&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><strong>What would you say has been the most challenging moment in your career&quest;<&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>I love my job a lot&period; I love patients and try to bring them healing and succour&period; I am living my dream but if the dream is too easy to achieve&comma; live and sustain&comma; then there would be no fun in that&period; The journey has been extremely challenging&period; I have only worked outside the country and as I am not just a woman but&comma; also &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;black”&comma; that combination alone means challenges meet you once you step out to do your job&period; I was faced with the challenge of getting accepted as a doctor in the first place&comma; not just by colleagues but patients too&period; It can be funny when I see the shock on patients’ faces when I introduce myself as their surgeon&period; I still get that look till today&comma; decades later&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>In my very first job in the UK&comma; I was told by my educational supervisor as a baby doctor that because I was &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;foreign” that I would never get a job as a surgeon and I should consider a different career path&period; You can only imagine how that introduces fear and doubts to you as an individual&period; A person meant to mentor and nurture your medical career tells you&comma; there is no point in dreaming&period; I believe these have been my biggest challenges&semi; overcoming prejudices and keeping faith in my goals&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Fortunately&comma; I grew up in a home where I was taught that dreams are free and can be achieved if only you put yourself through the mill and focus on the end game&period; This is my motto to date&comma; I am allowed to fall sometimes but I must get up quickly and try again&period; So when I face challenges&comma; I soldier on because as I say always&comma; you have to keep dreaming if you want your tombstone to have a story to tell when this life is over&period; I tell myself that mine will read&comma; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote; She came&comma; she dreamt&comma; she fought&comma; she won&comma; and she continues to win even though she is no longer here”&period; There is no point in living life if you cannot make a difference to others&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><strong>Full interview in OpenLife November edition<&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;