Dr Matt Walton

Matthew is a foundation doctor working in the NHS. During school, he was inspired to pursue a career in medicine following battlefield first aid training as Company Sergeant Major (W02) of the Newcastle Combined Cadet Force. Matthew then went on to study medicine at Cambridge University. He intercalated in the dynamics of infectious diseases and wrote a first-class dissertation on HIV vaccination after studying for 5 weeks in a Kenyan hospital. Following this, Matthew was assigned the role of ‘team medic’ for a 10,000-mile road expedition from London to Mongolia called the ‘Mongol Rally’, travelling across 19 countries in 6 weeks. During his clinical years, he volunteered as a first aider in Calais and Dunkirk refugee camps. As a result of this work, he developed an award-winning ‘First Year Aid’ course for Cambridge University students. For his medical elective, Matthew worked with Naya Qadam Trust to set up an amputee clinic in Bangladesh. In 2016 he was awarded the travelling fellowship award by the Faculty of Conflict & Catastrophe Medicine. Since qualifying in July 2017 Matthew has taken a year out of practice to pursue his ambitions. He has directed his efforts towards fundraising for the construction of a permanent hospital in Bangladesh. He was invited to present his project to the Model United Nations at the Hague World Forum in 2018. Matthew is a keen mountaineer and is currently undertaking the Diploma in Mountain Medicine. Matthew has been further inspired to follow a career in pre-hospital care by his observing placement with Essex and Herts Air Ambulance.