[Insights] Sharon Dowell: specialised treatment for the many

Sharon Dowell, a native of Barbados, had wanted a medical career since age 12, when her uncle was diagnosed with brain cancer. He ultimately succumbed to the cancer, but she had lasting memories of the doctors, who impressed her as “confident” and “knowledgeable” at a time when she and her family did not know what to do. “They brought hope”, she remembers. “I wanted to be able to do that for my family, for my mom, who seemed so lost and uncertain.” Dowell would later attend medical school at the University of the West Indies (Kingston, Jamaica).