Ian Moore – Becoming a podiatrist

I’d had just about enough of Engineering so if I’m not going to do Engineering, then I’m looking for a new role. So, I started researching various different new avenues and various other things and after a bit of Consultancy work in Engineering and doing various other bits and pieces … when I first left the Navy, you have to sign up with a Doctor and a Dentist, and when I was in the Dentist’s, while I was waiting, I picked up a copy of the BMJ, the British Medical Journal, and in the back of that they were asking for submissions to the School of Podiatric Medicine in London, and to this day I have no idea why I did it but I tore that page out and stuck it in my pocket.

I found it again a couple of months, rang the School up, chatted to a couple of guys on the end the phone, went up there for an interview. Funniest part of that was that they said, “Tell us about yourself” so I told them how I was diesel Submariner for 20 years and knew everything there was to know about diesel submarines, and he looked at me square in the face and said, “So, what the hell makes you think you can do this Course?” and I said, “Well you think of a human body, it’s no different to an Engine really. It’s got air bits running through it, it’s got fuel bits running through it, it’s got blood bits running through it, it’s got pumps, it’s got turning motions, it’s got this , it’s got that, it’s got the other.” “Yeah, I suppose we could sort of … I can see where you’re coming from.”

Anyway, the upshot was I was accepted on the Course and I’ve been a Podiatrist now for the past 27, 28 years as a second career.