WATCH: Riverlea’s own doctor, Roxanne Francis
A journey of becoming a doctor.
Dr. Roxanne Francis (30) born and bred in Riverlea speaks to us about her journey of becoming a doctor. Francis was a learner at Riverlea Primary and then attended Westbury High.
“It was tough because the schools around us do not have many opportunities. When I was in high school the schools were still at the stage where they tried to get community involvement as its important to have community involvement in education.
“I completed my matric in 2006, I worked really hard and of course for different courses, there are different requirements and from a young age I always knew that I wanted to do medicine,” said Francis.
“I always knew what subjects I needed to focus on and I always had a plan. Sometimes when you plan things it just makes the path clearer and if you do mini goals it works out even better,” she added.
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After matric, Francis had to rewrite her mathematics in order to get accepted into medicine. She then had to come up with a plan to get into medicine and applied for her Bachelors of Science and she was accepted to do it at the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits).
“I completed my four-year degree at Wits and graduated in 2012. While I was doing my Bachelors of Science I knew that medicine is still what I wanted to do so I looked for the next step that I could take to get into medicine.”
Francis said that she knew that Wits had the graduate medical programme where once you complete your degree in science you can apply to get into medicine which is another four-year programme.
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When asked why she chose medicine, Francis explained that she always found the science part of it very interesting and although there’s the aspect of helping people it was always the whole science behind it that fascinated her.
“While I was doing research, my mother showed me that there were universities in China who were advising vacancies in their medical universities so I thought it was different and a challenge, I always want challenges so I researched more and applied,” Francis explained.
Once Francis graduated in 2012 she started applying at the universities in China and was accepted at the Wenzhou Medical University. According to the doctor, Wits only use to take about forty students into their medical programme.
It was a six-year programme, five years of theory and a year-long internship. Francis left in October of 2012 and returned back home in August in this year. Francis currently has two degrees; Bachelors of Science and Bachelors of Medicine and Surgery.
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She explained: “The plan was always to come back home and practise this side but now our government is making it a bit difficult because at the moment they are not taking on any students who have not studied here in South Africa.”
Francis said that she knows of graduates who studied here in South Africa and are still struggling to get into placements.
Francis already has another plan and is currently studying for her board exams in England. She will be writing her first board exam here in November and then the second one is in March next year where she will have to go to England.
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