In January Dr Fiona Walter offered two free training opportunities to Newton MPH students, Trish Muzenda (University of Cape Town) and Jackie Lalam (University of Makerere, Uganda) to attend Cambridge’s MPhil in Primary Care Research Programme. Here are some brief reflections from their visit…

Trish: “The designing, delivering and analysing surveys in primary care module was particularly interesting. It put into perspective the vast techniques and expertise used in the development of the African Breast and Cervical Cancer Symptom Awareness (ABCCSA) tool. Learning the underlying principles of survey design and validation, after being involved in the tool’s practical development, was a great reflective exercise.”

Jackie: “In the second week we enjoyed a study visit to Guy’s Hospital in London under the supervision of Dr Suzanne Scott. I had an opportunity to attend one of the psychologist’s research presentation meetings and also visited London Bridge. While in Cambridge I took time to explore the Fitzwilliam Museum, old Roman churches, the famous Corpus Clock and we both went punting on the Cam.”

Trish: “I also familiarised myself with English cuisine. There is something to be said about a good serving of Yorkshire pudding! Coming from a background in molecular sciences, one of my Cambridge highlights was tracing around the places were Watson and Crick worked and lived, going right up to The Eagle, where they reportedly announced the DNA double Helix structure.”