Scholarship set Bea on a path to a promising career in midwifery practice and research

A midwife with ambitions to reach the very top of her profession has credited a scholarship for giving her the springboard to pursue her new career.

A full-time mum with a background in home renovations, Bea Gardner was in her late 20s when she decided she wanted to train to be a midwife.

The pressures of family life, coupled with the financial burden of high childcare costs, were something Bea knew she’d have to contend with, when she signed up for the University of Leicester’s Midwifery with Leadership MSci course.

She successfully applied for a scholarship from the Stoneygate Trust, which is available for University of Leicester applicants from low-income backgrounds who demonstrate academic potential and an ambition to succeed, but face barriers to attending university.

Four years on, Bea has achieved the first two parts of her dream, by graduating from the course with first class honours and establishing herself as a midwife at Leicester General Hospital.

Committed to developing her leadership and clinical impact, she is keen to progress to a consultant midwife role further down the line and was successful in securing a funded PhD research role with the Leicester Diabetes Centre

“The scholarship was instrumental in enabling me to pursue my ambition of becoming a midwife,” said Bea. “The additional financial support helped ease the pressures of family life and high childcare costs and, in the later years of the programme, enabled me to take part in valuable international opportunities.”

These included a research trip to Japan, where Bea explored the socio-economic impact on healthcare, and in particular, the declining birth rate alongside an ageing population. This experience led to her presenting her findings at a UK conference and publishing her first research paper. Bea also spent two weeks in Sri Lanka learning about leadership and maternity care in a developing-country, before attending an international midwifery conference in Berlin.

In 2024, Bea was shortlisted for a Royal College of Midwives award in the Student Midwife of the Year category.

“None of these incredible opportunities would have been possible without the support of the University and the Stoneygate Trust,” said Bea. “Their belief in my potential has given me the confidence and motivation to achieve more and, I hope, to pay this forward by supporting others in the future.”

Which brings us to Bea’s PhD, with a research focus on lifestyle behaviours – specifically diet and physical activity – and how they prevent and help manage gestational diabetes and hypertensive disorders of pregnancy.

Bea said: “My academic and clinical roles complement each other very well, and I am fortunate to be well-supported in developing as a clinical academic, with training across clinical practice, research, academia, and leadership. These opportunities are helping me build the skills and experience needed to progress towards advanced clinical practice, with the long-term aim of becoming a consultant midwife.”