Up Close … with specialist biomedical scientist Tessia Evenor |07 April 2020

‘I like my chosen career as it is ever-changing and challenging’

By Laura Pillay

As nations around the world come together to applaud and hail healthcare workers, scientists and all those working on the frontlines against the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, Seychelles NATION brings you an interview with a bright, young talent who is flying the Seychelles flag in Norwich, England, where she is a specialist biomedical scientist at the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital.

Tessia Evenor, the eldest of two siblings, was born and raised, for the most part of her childhood years, in Seychelles before moving to England in 2004 with her family, in search of better educational and professional opportunities.

During her younger years, she resided at Machabée amid her close-knit family, attending Glacis primary school and Beau Vallon secondary school, before opting to further her studies in nursing.

Being of a curious and inquisitive nature, Tessia’s passion for sciences, especially biology, was ignited from a young age, and she often carried out experiments on herself which ended in numerous trips to the Casualty, and Accidents and Emergency room. As a child, she would often dream of becoming a veterinarian but was put off the idea when she learned she would have to treat reptiles and snakes. Driven by a desire to help others, she dabbled with the idea of becoming a midwife, set her sights on becoming a doctor, until she discovered her passion for bio-medical science, a field she hopes to excel in in years to come.

The journey to the lab coats and becoming a scientist

Tessia and her family moved to England while she was in her first year of the nursing programme. Upon reaching the UK, she was quick to jump into action, getting a part-time job in retail and enrolling herself in college where she sat for A-Level Biology, Chemistry and Physics. During the two years at college, she was introduced to universities offering programmes in medicine.

After some reflection, she decided to abandon the idea of becoming a doctor, setting her sights instead on medical science.

“The journey to become a scientist has been full of hurdles if I’m honest. It has been challenging, but I would not go back and do it any differently if I had the option,” she said proudly.

Having successfully completed her A-Levels, she moved on to Kingston University in 2007 and emerged three years later with a BSc Honours in Biomedical Science.

“I was so fascinated by microbiology. I am interested in infectious diseases, like how virus or bacteria can be normal while others can cause infections. It’s fascinating how something so small can even cause death. With sciences, it is always evolving and ever-changing. A practice which was done a couple of years ago might be obsolete now so you are constantly being challenged.”

Shortly after completing her degree, Tessia progressed onto the Masters in Medical Micro-Biology at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, with a focus on molecular biology and biology, where she learned as much as possible about viruses. Having herself contracted the Chikungunya virus in Seychelles, she did her project about the virus and was awarded and recognised for best project.

“When I finished my Masters, it was hard to get a job. In UK, even with a degree, the path to becoming a biomedical scientist is long, you need a registration portfolio and for that you need to have received training from a laboratory,” Tessia recalls.

Despite the difficulties she faced in securing a job, she remained hopeful and was in 2012 recruited on a four-month contract with the National Health Service (NHS) in a bio-cancer screening programme. In the meantime, she applied for other posts, including that of medical laboratory assistant whose role is to assist scientists, for instance by preparing specimens at St Georges Hospital. She missed out on the first opportunity but the laboratory manager was so impressed with her interview that she was recruited for another position shortly after. During the brief two-year period in which she worked there, she was also working on her registration portfolio during her own time, determined to become a practising scientist.

Again, she moved on to become an Associate Practitioner at the Great Ormond Street Hospital where she was involved with research on typing adenovirus in clinical specimens, on a one-year contract.

“The position at Great Ormond Street Hospital was good in that I like research and was working independently and gained experience. I thought it could strengthen my skills which are important as a biomedical scientist which involves working autonomously and competently at all times, you are dealing with sensitive patient information and it is a balance of life and death. The wrong test could lead to a patient dying so it involves a lot of focus.”

While working at the children’s hospital, Tessia’s registration portfolio was verified and she successfully satisfied the requirements, including practical and knowledge-based test, meaning she could register and practice as a biomedical scientist.

Fully-aware that she needed to make moves to secure employment early-on before the end of the one-year contract, Tessia continued to apply for other positions through agencies.

“One day I received a call from an agent who told me there is an opportunity in Norwich to be a biomedical scientist if I am interested. The interview was relatively short notice and set for just a few days later. During the interview, I had to complete a practical test and was taken around the laboratory, which looked quite small. On the way back to London, in fact, I was still on the bus in Norwich on the way to the train station, and the agent called me and said I got the job, that was 15 minutes after the interview. True to that, the laboratory manager called me shortly after, and said they were really impressed with my interview and they wanted to hire me,” she noted.

“I was thrilled but also thinking of the big move ahead, from London to Norwich and for the first time, I would be living on my own. It was a big move for me, but I handed in my notice. It was stressful as I had to find suitable accommodation for me so I moved into a shared house and started the job in May 2015. At first I struggled a bit, because it was still relatively new to me. Even if you have the theory and knowledge, it is very different in a diagnostic setting.”

She was first posted on the urines bench and received training. Always enthusiastic to learn more and push herself, she immersed herself in the job, and took on her specialist diploma shortly after. Upon successfully completing her specialist diploma, she has been upgraded to specialist biomedical scientist in the medical Micro-biology department of the laboratory at which she is employed.

The role of biomedical scientists involves performing routine and specialist analytical testing on a range of biological samples and to effectively communicate specific information to medics and service-users, patients. They analyse samples and conduct tests to isolate micro-organisms and perform susceptibility testing and identify organisms as well as testing the effectiveness of different antibiotics to organisms (causative agents in infections) and proposing what to prescribe patients.

“I like my chosen career as it is ever-changing and challenging and I get to help people. As the public are seeing now, there is more to healthcare than only doctors, who are at the forefront. We are kind of like the forgotten child but they do not often see the backbone or the others that doctors rely on. Each has their role and each is just as important as the other,” she said.

In the years to come, Tessia hopes to either be able to further her studies or go into lecturing, or to even pursue other specialist fields like virology.

Asides from her love for science, she is a dedicated reader, and likes all brain-stimulating things. When she takes off the lab coat and has some time off, she enjoys travelling and discovering new cultures, learning different languages and sampling local cuisines.