Issue 19, 2013 - Balliol College - University of Oxford

student news
Prize-winning
medical essay
John Spaull Photography
Joshua Harvey (2008) won the 2012 Michael
Pittilo Student Essay Award. The theme
for the competition, which is run by the
College of Medicine each year and is open
to all healthcare students studying at
undergraduate level or above, was healthy
ageing. Joshua explains: ‘The care of the
elderly is often seen as costly but it is not
age that is expensive but rather unhealthy
ageing which causes disease. The basic
idea about the essay was to re-orientate
public health measures and primary care
(GP services) to facilitate healthy ageing. I
particularly focused on how GPs and local
government can encourage exercise, healthy
diet, and the use of preventative services –
cancer screening, immunizations, etc.’
The essay not only won Joshua a cash prize
– ‘I found out I had won a few hours before
the start of my first A&E night shift at the JR.
The thought of what I was going to spend the
£500 on kept me going in the early hours of
the morning!’ – but also publication in the
International Therapist magazine. As winner
he was asked to present an abstract of his
essay to doctors, nurses and other healthcare
professionals at the College of Medicine’s
Annual Conference. His speech was much
admired by delegates and many have since
requested a copy. Joshua was also presented
to HRH the Prince of Wales (right).
Joshua would definitely encourage other
students to enter competitions, ‘particularly if
they are outside your area of expertise. They
get you doing things you wouldn’t normally
do and who knows, you might get a little bit
of money along the way too.’ Winning the
competition gave him some experience of
public speaking which, despite being ‘quite
nerve-racking’, was a valuable opportunity:
‘I had never spoken to that many people
before and it has given me the confidence
to speak in front of other (fortunately
smaller) groups since. It also gives you a
chance to meet lots of important people,
some of whom I’m still in contact with –
though unfortunately Prince Charles is not
one of them.’
John Spaull Photography
Where have all the mockers gone
in an article in Annual Record 2012, Richard
Heller (1966) lamented that the tradition of
satirical humour that he had enjoyed and
participated in while he was at Balliol seemed
to be in eclipse. in an attempt to revive the
spirit of satire at the College, he launched a
competition in memory of his parents, Bob
and Jeanie Heller, to find the best original and
inventive piece of satirical writing by a current
Balliol student. the winner of the competition
was tim Adamo (2009) with ‘this Week at
the Cinema’, which skewered pretentious film
makers and critics. it appears opposite.
‘there are a lot of really awful films being
made these days,’ says tim when asked where
his idea came from. ‘if you read reviews for
some of them, it’s hard to believe that they’re
real. Also, there seems to be no limit to how
low good actors or film makers will stoop or
how unexpectedly high otherwise middling
entertainers will reach. A few years ago, i
started writing fake reviews for real films i
wanted to watch at the cinema in an attempt
to convince other people to tag along and
also to highlight how horrendous some of the
other stuff on offer was.’
tim is not one to shy away from
competition, having won a Jowett
senior scholarship in the first year of his
Mathematics doctorate, and recommends
entering competitions while at university:
‘if it’s something related to your academic
work, then it’s an opportunity to prepare
yourself for the challenges you will face after
graduation. if it’s something like this prize,
then it’s a wonderful opportunity to have
fun at someone else’s expense and hopefully
make other people laugh.’
C urrently in the fourth year of his
DPhil, tim says: ‘i never would have
started writing things like this if it weren’t
for the community of people in the Balliol
MCR who were willing to put up with my
shenanigans.’ Perhaps there are others in
the College, then, whom ‘this Week at the
Cinema’ will encourage to try their hands
at satirical prose or verse, just as the prize’s
founder, Richard Heller, hoped.
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