Widening Participation Champions

Mandy Hampshire

Mandy Hampshire is the current Director of Undergraduate Medicine Admissions at the University of Nottingham. Alongside this role she is the Widening Participation Champion for Medicine for Derbyshire, where she also works as a GP.  

As a graduate of Nottingham Medical School herself, Mandy is a great advocate for the University and following her degree, stayed in the local area where she trained as a GP. 

During her career, she has worked both full-time and part-time, taken time to go travelling abroad and had a career break when her children were young. 

As a GP, Mandy loves being part of a team dedicated to offering the best care possible to their patients. She loves that every patient is unique, and every day is different and challenging. She thrives on any opportunity for professional development and by learning new skills and techniques she is more able to care for her patients effectively and make sure they are as well as they can be. 

Studying Medicine is an important career choice, so students need as much information as possible about life as a medical student and what it will be like to work as a doctor. In order to help students make the best decision about their future careers Mandy very much enjoys working with staff from various teams across the University to guide and support them, from those still considering medicine as an option through to final year medical students deciding on their next career steps and applying for their first jobs as qualified doctors in the NHS.

She says ‘It is a real privilege to watch Nottingham medical students develop through the medical course and graduate as doctors’ 

David O'Brien

Dr David O’Brien is the current Interim Clinical Vice Dean of the Lincoln Medical School, where he is also the Director of Medicine Admissions. He also holds the role as Widening Participation and outreach Champion for Medicine for Lincolnshire, where he works as a consultant interventional cardiologist. 

David graduated from Ninewells Hospital and Medical School in Dundee. His early career was spent in Scotland before moving south to join the research team at the Cardiovascular Research Institute at the University of Leicester. He then began training in cardiology, and subsequently Interventional Cardiology in Nottingham, before moving with his family to Canada for an Interventional Cardiology fellowship at the University of Alberta. He moved back to the UK to help establish the interventional cardiology programme at the Lincolnshire Heart Centre, where he became Clinical Director for Cardiology for several years and where he still practices cardiology as an honorary NHS consultant today. He joined the University of Nottingham as a Clinical Associate Professor in Medical Education and Director of Admissions in October 2020 and became interim Vice Dean of the Lincoln Medical School in April 2022.  

David is a passionate advocate for the Lincoln Medical School which he feels offers huge advantages for the local population of Lincolnshire. He believes the new medical school building really is a fantastic place to work and study for staff and students alike. David loves to teach and to introduce students and other professionals to the world of cardiology. He works as part of an amazing team of dedicated and highly trained individuals, to deliver high quality clinical care to patients across the region. 

When he isn’t scrubbed up doing procedures or seeing patients in his outpatient clinic, David can usually be found messing about on the water in his sailing boat, running, cycling or hill-walking with his family (but sadly not in Lincolnshire which is on the whole pretty flat!).

When asked he says “I believe being a doctor is a real honour, and it is a privilege to be involved in caring for patients often when they are going through the most challenging and difficult of times. Seeing our medical students set out on their own journeys to becoming doctors of the future and helping them transition and develop into exceptional clinicians of tomorrow, is one of the most rewarding things in my career to date.” 

Chanele Blackwood

Dr Chanele Blackwood is the Widening Participation Champion for Medicine for Nottinghamshire. She is also a Lead GP for an online company that covers the whole of the UK, and she is also a GP in the Nottingham out of hours service.

Dr Chanele Blackwood graduated from Barts and the London school of medicine. She did her Foundation Year 1 in Nottingham, then spent time across different parts of the East midlands doing the rest of her training, before deciding to settle in Nottingham.

She is passionate about helping students from underrepresented groups get into medical school, and is keen to help in any way she can.