QCoal supports Mackay medical student

The QCoal Foundation supports initiatives that are focused on health, liveability and education in rural and remote Queensland communities.

In particular, the Foundation is helping provide a pathway for rural and remote students to attend university, partnering with JCU to provide the new QCoal Foundation Scholarship.

Ms Singh, a Bachelor of Medicine/Bachelor of Surgery student, will receive $10,000 per year over three years to help her with her studies and help meet living expenses.

Ms Singh attended Glenden State School and Mackay State High School, comes from a mining family, and has lived in various mining towns in both India and Australia. She is passionate about enhancing health care in rural and remote areas.

“Accessibility of suitable medical attention in rural or remote areas is scarce. Being a member of a mining family, I have spent the majority of my life in remote mining towns, surrounded by wilderness, with sometimes not even a functioning pharmacy within a 100km radius,” she said.

“Therefore, there is no surprise that people living in rural areas tend to have shorter lives and higher levels of illness and disease risk factors than those in major cities.

“I believe that this situation is wholly unfair and I am fully committed to balancing these levels by partaking in a medical program such as JCU’s, which has a strong focus on rural and remote medicine.”

Interest in the scholarship, which was advertised late last year, had been very strong.

“We were very impressed with the quality of applications received from regional students commencing their studies at James Cook University this year,” QCoal Foundation Director, Christopher Wallin said.

“The QCoal Foundation is proud to have partnered with the University to provide this scholarship to a young Queenslander who did some of her studies in the Bowen Basin and has expressed a strong commitment to working in the regions in the future.”

“Through our working partnership with the Royal Flying Doctor Service, we have built upon our strong support for provision of quality healthcare across regional Queensland and we wish Ms Singh all the best as she undertakes her medical studies.”

Throughout the six-year course, Ms Singh plans to travel back and forth to Mackay to visit family and friends in her study breaks. She said she may consider moving to Mackay to complete her fifth year of the MBBS from Mackay Base Hospital.