Will is one of my good friends who I met during my first year as a nursing student in 2015 on my first ever nursing placement. Will was a support worker and had a passion for helping others, he wanted to do something more with that passion but hadn’t felt able to apply to do his nurse training. So I decided to help him with the practicalities & find the confidence to start that journey as I saw the compassion he had for the service users we were looking after. 5 years on he is a hardworking nursing student currently in his final year at the University of York, he is due to finish his course this September 2020. However, with the current coronavirus pandemic he is having to self isolate following medical advice due to being identified as very high risk. You may know this already about Will but he received an organ transplant at a very young age that was life saving and as a result is immunosuppressed. He has and will have to take immunosuppressive drugs for the rest of his life. The Department of Health Sciences at the University of York have stated that because of this he can’t graduate this year and will he forced to take a leave of absence. This means he won’t be able to graduate till September 2021 and therefore won’t be able to register or work as a nurse as planned for a full year. For him this is absolutely devastating. Your dreams being crushed in the matter of minutes. Although the circumstances can’t be helped it seems highly unfair that he has to take a year leave for something that is completely out of his control just to return and finish a few practice hours after 12 months. Surely in such circumstances he should be be supported to complete his practice hours once out of isolation given the sensitivity of the situation and the Department of Health Sciences should be supporting any student in such a situation. Even if this means completing his hours whilst everyone else is completing their elective (hours that arn’t actually necessary to complete your degree). I think it’s appalling of University of York to not even consider this. It’s discriminating against someone solely on health as those without health risk during this pandemic will not be effected. I want to see fairness through this and I hope I can help Will get the conditions he needs to able to graduate this year and start working as a nurse like he has worked hard for.

Please sign the petition below to help us get his voice heard ��

https://www.change.org/willtograduatein2020