Bedale High School welcomed former student Dr Catherine Mela (née Burton) to deliver a presentation with a group of aspiring year 9 scientists.
Catherine attended the high school between 1984 and 1989 and always enjoyed the science lessons, but struggled in writing down all her ideas in class due to dyslexia.
She went on to Harrogate College and completed a BTEC National Diploma in science and then a degree in biochemistry at Salford University.
Following advice from her tutor at Salford, she applied for and was awarded a European Social Fund Scholarship to study an EU Master’s Degree in biotechnology and then went on to work for the civil service at the Institute for Animal Health in Pirbright where she worked on the world eradication programme for rinderpest — cattle equivalent of measles.
She was then encouraged by her professor to work towards a PhD in medicine at Imperial College London, studying treatment strategies in HIV-1 infection.
After being awarded her PhD in 2003, she stayed in university research until 2008 when she moved into pharmaceutical company research.
Having reached an executive director position in AstraZeneca, which was particularly interesting with regards to the response to Covid-19, she is now moving back to more laboratory-based research in the near future.
Andy Childe, assistant headteacher, said: “The students found Catherine’s story really inspiring, having the courage to overcome the barrier of dyslexia to write her thesis; having the commitment and resilience to pursue different jobs that has led her to where she is now, and the compassion to make the right, ethical decisions for her work and her family.
“We thank Catherine for taking the time to come into school and look forward to seeing her again soon.”
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