Balancing life and ophthalmology

[caption id="attachment_16673" align="alignleft" width="683"] Luke Sansom[/caption] Working and looking after a family can be challenging at the best of times, but for young ophthalmologists in training it can be a specially daunting task. ‘How To Balance Ophthalmology And Family Life’ was the title of this year’s John Henahan Prize, which attracted more than 61 entries, one of the highest number of entrants since the competition was launched in 2008. The judges had a difficult task in making their choice but in the end, they decided that the outstanding essay was written by Dr Luke Sansom. Dr Sansom studied medicine at the University of Leeds, United Kingdom, and is an ST5 Ophthalmology specialist trainee in the Yorkshire and Humber deanery. He received a travel bursary worth €1,000 to attend the 37th Congress of the ESCRS and a special trophy was presented to him at the Video Awards Session. Emanuel Rosen, chief medical editor of EuroTimes and chairman of the judging panel, said all the submissions were of the highest quality and selecting an overall winner was  extremely difficult. “Dr Sansom described, in an entertaining manner, the difficulties of combining the physical and mental decisions that were necessary to do justice to the requirements of learning ophthalmology with all that entailed with the needs of his wife and his young family transplanted into a new and initially difficult environment,” said Dr Rosen. “Dr Sansom entertainingly describes his conflicts and records his ultimate all-round satisfaction through persistence and careful balancing his conflicting requirements,” said Dr Rosen. “He ultimately discovers that he made the correct decision along the rocky pathway, concluding his joyous and rewarding consequence of deep respect for the chance to pursue an exciting career in ophthalmology whilst enjoying the settlement of his new family in a new environment.” Dr Rosen was joined on the judging panel by Thomas Kohnen, Chairman of the ESCRS Publications Committee; José Güell, former president of the ESCRS; Oliver Findl, Chairperson of the ESCRS Young Ophthalmologists Committee; Sean Henahan, Editor of EuroTimes; 
Paul McGinn, Editor of EuroTimes; and Robert Henahan, Contributing Editor of EuroTimes. Dr Sansom has a special interest in cornea and anterior segment surgery and after he completes his training, he hopes to undertake a fellowship in corneal and refractive surgery. “Winning this prize is a wonderful honour and I feel greatly privileged that I was able to share my story with a wider audience. My reflections on my earlier years of training act as a reminder that none of us are immune to the effects of life’s difficulties but that by being honest with ourselves, our families and our colleagues we are able to adapt and overcome such challenges and often come out the other end all the stronger for it” said Dr Sansom. “Writing does not come particularly naturally to me but I did find the process of writing my essay highly cathartic. For the first time I was able to fully reflect on my experiences and better understand how these have shaped who I have become today. I would strongly recommend the process of reflective writing to my colleagues and I will certainly be picking up my pen again very soon.”  

Tags: John Henahan Prize