Profile
Clara Ferreira
-
About Me:
Hello!
I am Clara – I am Portuguese and I swapped sunny Portugal for Coventry to pursue my career and studies.
-
Read more
Hello!
I am Clara – I am Portuguese and I swapped sunny Portugal for Coventry to pursue my career and studies.
I love scuba diving and gold (not an old yet, but I behave like one!) and love rock (probably because my mum went to a Metallica show when she was pregnant with me).
I am very techie and live surrounded by technology all the time (not great, according with my mum).
Also love travelling – 15 countries until now. I could have increase my list more, but I spend too much time in Italy.
-
My pronouns are:
They/them, but I do not get upset if you use she/her.
-
My Work:
I work as a Nuclear Medicine Technologist and I am a PhD student in Endocrinology and Oncology.
-
Read more
I work as a Nuclear Medicine Technologist and I am a PhD student in Endocrinology and Oncology.
Yes, I do work with radioactivity; I am sorry to disappoint you, but I am not green (yet!). Sad, I know! I use radioactivity in healthcare to help diagnosing disease and treating others.
I decided to do a PhD because I love medical scans since ever – but there are so many things to be improved about diagnosis and my PhD is my contribute to it.
I am passionate for a specific type of cancer, obviously endocrine related. Its symbol is a zebra – go on, you want to Google it, don’t you? 🙂
-
My Typical Day:
All of us have challenged in our typical days – mine is dealing with my bipolar disorder and ADHD.
-
Read more
All of us have challenged in our typical days – mine is dealing with my bipolar disorder and ADHD.
I wake up at 6 am to take my tablets – I was officially declared crazy in 2017! lol -, take my tablets and have my breakfast. I walk to the hospital and start working at 8 am; I start the working day helping my colleagues to prepare the department to receive patients and patients start to arrive 45 minutes later.
Everyday, we tend to do different things around the department to make sure that our exposure to radioactivity is as low as possible – but I can produce the radioactive pharmaceuticals, make the doses for different patients, inject them with radioactivity and scan patients. There are so many things to do around the department and some times I go through all these things in just one day. 🙂
I have 1 hour for lunch, which I use to read a book – I do write book reviews for authors as well! 🙂
I leave work around 18:30, get on the bus and… No, I do not go home! I travel straight to university, where I do different science experiments in the lab, by using cells (which we buy from companies) or patient tissues.
I only leave university at 22:00 (long day, ah?), get in the bus and get home around 23:00. As soon as I get home, the first thing that I do is to make my medication – one of the side effects of my night medication is sleep. After that, I only have time to take a shower and get ready to bed – by that time, my meds are already working and I have to go to bed.
-
What I'd do with the prize money:
I would choose to take people to a place that they want (a lab, museum, …) somewhere where you can understand how our day actually looks like.
-
Education:
I did my school and degree in Portugal. I did study Nuclear Medicine for my degree.
I did my Masters in Lisbon, Portugal in Molecular Imaging (I love a type of imaging called PET); and I am doing my PhD in Coventry University.
-
Qualifications:
I have a BsC, MsC; and working on the PhD (my mum already said that I have to stop registering myself in uni after finish it!).
-
Work History:
I work since I was 16 years old – my father left at that time and we needed money so I found a job in a caffe just in front of the school.
When I moved to university, I found a job in a call center (which definitely taught me how to deal with difficult people; it also taught me how to perform a good job in a fast and efficient way). Definitely a good teaching if you are going to work in a hospital!
At the end of my first year, I found a job as a research assistant in a Medical School – I was working in the Neurosciences area. Lots of research techniques that I use in my PhD, I learnt over there. I became a specialist in one technique in my university because of it and I left university as a publishing author.
Other than my work at the hospital and my PhD, I still work as an author, advisor and teach in university.
-
Current Job:
I work as a Nuclear Medicine Technologist (no, I do not make nuclear bombs…!) – I work with radioactivity in order to provide diagnosis and treatments to patients; most of them in the area of cancer.
I also teach people who are doing their courses to do the same.
And, in my spare time, I do my PhD (the fact that I do not have a lot of spare time probably justifies the fact that the PhD is going slow!).
-
Employer:
Well, the government in both of my jobs. 🙂
-
My Interview
-
How would you describe yourself in 3 words?
Sarcastic, techie, scientist.
What did you want to be after you left school?
Do research in the medical field. I started studying radioactivity when I was 17 and fell in love.
Were you ever in trouble at school?
Hmmmm.... Obviously! I was taught to always say what I think - that brought me lots of problems! :)
If you weren't doing this job, what would you choose instead?
I would have chosen mathematics to study in uni and I would live surrounded by equations. They calm my ADHD mind. :)
Who is your favourite singer or band?
I love Scorpions (it is a rock band from the 70s, I know you don't know them!), but also love Maneskin.
What's your favourite food?
Arroz de cabidela - it is a portuguese dish, but I do not recommend you to search what the sauce is made of.
If you had 3 wishes for yourself what would they be? - be honest!
Live in a little cottage in a forest in Canada, with unlimited access to books and a fireplace always on (this is probably not very green!).
Tell us a joke.
I am a sarcastic person - my jokes are never good. But when someone gets contaminated with radiation, we say they are hot. So, at some point, I was a hot person.
-