Fate Took My Hand

I've just completed another challenge on 52in10

This week's challenge is about your role model, a person who has influenced your life, or who you would aspire to be.

I've never had a mentor or anyone I greatly admire enough to aspire to be like them. Oh, Martin Luther King maybe, but I'm not a political activist, and no-one of his ilk has entered my little sphere of the World for me to copy. But thinking about this prompt reminded me of how I came to choose the career I did, and the influence of Fate in that decision. So there was the makings of a layout!

I have made a scrapbook page about training as a Radiographer before and blogged about it here so I took the words from that post and turned them into the hidden journaling on my Challenge layout. I printed off an old newspaper article about the expanding careers of women in society and decoupaged the centre image. I aged the papers with distress ink and ceated a border with ribbons and a heart punch at the bottom of the page. I then cut a slit in the page to form a pocket for my journaling tag.

The photo of me dates back to 1993 when I was working at Stoke Mandeville Hospital, just before I moved to Brighton.

The hidden journaling reads:

So, how did I choose Radiography as a career? I think Fate played a part in it.

When I was twelve I was knocked down crossing a busy road and my ankle was broken. I was taken to hospital and an enduring memory I had thereafter was of the Radiographer (not that I knew what her title was then) taking x-rays of me to show the fracture. It was only when I had to make a career choice and I definitely did not want to go to University like most of my classmates, that I discovered Radiography. I read all about it and applied to two Schools of Radiography to train. I was accepted by Oxford and started training in 1977. When I did my practical training at Stoke Mandeville Hospital in Aylesbury, who should be there but the very Radiographer who x-rayed me after my accident!

Her name was Julie, but I never told her the influence she unwittingly had on my life.

New (Old) Photograph

I've been away, hence no blog posts lately, and have been staying with Mum and Dad in Milton Keynes.

Whilst there, Dad got out some of his photo albums to look through and out fell an old photo of me as a student at Oxford. I can't remember the photo actually being taken, but when Dad gave it to me to bring home, I decided it just had to be scrapped!

I wanted to use the UK Scrappers Sketch from their Challenge this week as it has just one photo, so I had a go with this layout.

I printed X-ray skeletons onto a piece of printable cotton canvas that I had. It's the first time I have ever used canvas and it was very easy to use. Then I used a piece of K&Company paper as background - quite appropriate as it is chalk writing on a blackboard and that was how I was taught. The other papers and journaling spots are My Minds Eye - Ooh La La collection. In addition I used cork to give the illusion of a notice board and 'pinned' items onto it with brads.

I wanted the layout to be quite 3D so I used 3D foam tape and overlayed different items to make it layered. I'm quite pleased with how it turned out as I don't usually scrap one photo on a page, and it was a challenge I really enjoyed doing.

So, how did I choose Radiography as a career? I think Fate played a part in it.

When I was twelve I was knocked down crossing a busy road and my ankle was broken. I was taken to hospital and an enduring memory I had thereafter was of the Radiographer (not that I knew what her title was then) taking x-rays of me to show the fracture. It was only when I had to make a career choice and I definitely did not want to go to University like most of my classmates, that I discovered Radiography. I read all about it and applied to two Schools of Radiography to train. I was accepted by Oxford and started training in 1977. When I did my practical training at Stoke Mandeville Hospital in Aylesbury, who should be there but the very Radiographer who x-rayed me after my accident!

I am in my 30th year of working as a Radiographer, and although it's a stressful job that I now have, I can honestly say there is no other career I would rather have had all these years.