Our Story
A charity set up to commemorate the life and work of a Portsmouth radiologist, supporting students from state schools into medical school.
A fitting tribute
Dr Mike King grew up in Portsmouth and came back to work in it, as a Consultant Radiologist at Queen Alexandra Hospital. In 2018 he died of cancer, at the age of 45.
The Trust was established in his name by a fellow Portsmouth resident, Dr Manish Patel, a gastroenterology consultant at St Mary’s in Portsmouth. The two had met at medical school in London, both of them state-school students from the city, and both had chosen to return to it.
Mike was a gifted clinician and academic who contributed so much to our community.
Why it was needed
Dr Patel has described what the Trust was set up to fix:
“Mike and I both grew up in Portsmouth and we met when we went to medical school. Growing up, my mother worked in a take-away and my father was a driver. Getting into medical school was a challenge as, both at home and at school, there was not the knowledge about how to go through the complex process.”
“People from places like Portsmouth, with areas of deprivation, tend to be under-represented in the medical profession. I had always wanted to set up a trust to support young people in the city who come from a non-clinical background to have the skills and confidence to successfully take on the process. Doing so in Mike’s name seemed to be a fitting tribute.”
Five students, and a start
Dr Patel contacted Portsmouth College to ask whether any students would be interested in coaching for their medical school applications. Five came forward. He mentored them through the whole process — personal statements, exam technique, and the interviews that set applicants against medical quandaries rather than asking about their strengths and weaknesses.
“The college offers sound advice for university courses, but it is difficult to understand the complex medical school process if you have not gone through it.”
He also arranged a week’s work experience for them at St Mary’s, where they shadowed doctors and nurses on the wards, in the operating theatres and in the urgent treatment centre.
The work experience was excellent — we learnt so much from the clinicians we met. Two of the group decided, after meeting the radiography team, that they wanted to pursue diagnostic imaging as a profession, something they would not have known about without it. The interview practice was invaluable, as they are like no other job or academic interview any of us had come across. It allowed all of us to go in with much more confidence than we would have had.
What happened next
Three of the students took up places at medical school. Care UK, which ran the centre at the time and is now Practice Plus Group, gave each of them an engraved stethoscope to take with them.
“I am delighted that the work experience has helped the students fulfil their ambition of attending medical school,” said hospital director Penny Daniels. “Manish is a truly dedicated professional who is committed to the community he serves. We hope to help him with further work placements as the Trust grows and his programme reaches other schools.”
It did. What began with five students at one college is now the Mike King Partnership, working across every major A-Level provider in the city, with a network of consultants, surgeons and GPs volunteering their time.
The Trust still runs on people volunteering their time.