Two babies and four degrees push medic Pippa to the limit

Published On Mon 20 Jun 2016 by Grant Hill

For most people, the prospect of becoming a parent during their studies would be daunting but University of Dundee graduand Pippa Bell pushed herself further by having a second baby while studying for her degree in Medicine.

Pippa (38), from Roxburgh in the Borders, gave birth to her daughter Elizabeth between the first and second years of her course and followed up with son Douglas less than 12 months later. The rest of her degree passed without Pippa and husband Steven adding to their family further but night feeds, nappies, teething and tantrums meant overcoming obstacles that her classmates didn’t face.

Pippa has never been one to shy away from an academic challenge, however, and her medical degree will be the fourth she has obtained. Pippa’s first foray into the world of higher education saw her study Environmental Sciences after leaving school. She then took the unusual decision to study for a Masters degree before graduating and combined her honours year with working towards an LLM in Environmental Law and Management.

Having obtained both those qualifications Pippa joined a legal firm in England and studied for a Law degree whilst she worked. After nine years as a lawyer, Pippa decided a new career was in order and matriculated on the Medicine course at Dundee. This was to coincide with another major life change.

“I had known for a few years that being a lawyer wasn’t for me and that I had to make the change,” she said. “I came to Dundee where I became known as the girl who was always pregnant! We got married two days before I started the course and spent our ‘mini-moon’ in a hotel on the outskirts of the city so I could prepare.

“Then in the November we found out I was pregnant and that the baby would be born in the summer. It was all planned but I hadn’t factored how hard it would be commuting from the Borders to Dundee while I was pregnant.

“I was back at university six weeks after Elizabeth was born and we moved up to Dundee at the start of my second year. It was just as well we did as I found out I was expecting Douglas in the October so I spent the first two years of my course pregnant. Elizabeth and Douglas are so close together in age that on one birthday Steven didn’t have any children and on the next he had two!

“It was hard having two babies so young and studying for a degree as well, especially as all my family were down in the Borders, but Steven was incredible and gave up his job to look after the children while I did my degree. It’s been exhausting at times but it is incredibly satisfying to have done well in the course as well as creating two little people.”

Pippa, who will graduate in absentia this week, has now moved back to the Borders with her family. She will start her training as a junior doctor in August and hopes to work as a GP with a special interest in emergency medicine. But are any further career changes on the cards?

“No, definitely not!” she said. “My mother was a doctor and I should have gone into medicine straight away but I chose a different path and it’s taken me a while to get here. Now that I am it feels right and I’ll be sticking with it. And no more babies either!”

Thousands of successful students will feel the tap of the Dundee bonnet this week as the University hosts its graduation ceremonies in the Caird Hall. Six ceremonies will take place over the course of the week, a time of great celebration for students and their families.

Just under 3000 students will graduate with degrees, postgraduate diplomas and diplomas and graduands in their robes will fill City Square before and after each ceremony, with many later making their way to the Garden Parties held in the heart of the University campus.

The traditional Dundee bonnet - spun, woven, dyed and embroidered for the University by the Dundee Bonnetmakers Craft - is used by the Chancellor, Lord Patel of Dunkeld, symbolically to confer degrees on graduates.

The graduation ceremonies begin on Wednesday, 22nd June and run for the rest of the week, with morning and afternoon ceremonies each day. The morning ceremonies begin at 10am, and the afternoon ceremonies at 2.30pm. Graduation garden parties take place each day at the Campus Green, Balfour Place, from 4 pm to 7 pm.

For media enquiries contact:
Grant Hill
Press Officer
University of Dundee
Nethergate, Dundee, DD1 4HN
Tel: +44 (0)1382 384768
Mobile: 07854 953277
Email: g.hill@dundee.ac.uk