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100 years of our pharmacy heroes

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Over the past 100 years we have produced tens of thousands of pharmacy heroes who have gone on to offer expertise, support and assistance to people in all corners of the world.

You could find our heroes working in the following areas:

Community pharmacy: this involves working in pharmacies on high streets or in large stores. You will find them dispensing prescriptions, dealing with minor ailments, advising on the use of medicines and liaising with other health professionals.

Hospital pharmacy: this involves the purchasing, dispensing, quality testing and supply of medicines used in hospitals.

Primary care: this involves working in General Practice surgeries, either as an employee of the Practice or the Primary Care Trust. Roles include Medicines Management Pharmacists, who are responsible for prescribing budgets and the development of prescribing directives.

Secondary care: this involves working in hospitals to supply medicines, manage clinics, provide drug information and prescribe medicines.

Industrial pharmacists: this involves areas such as research and development, quality assurance and product registration.

Read on to find out more about the careers of some of our pharmacy heroes.

Published: 24 February 2021

Meet our heroes

Dr Margaret Ledger-Scott

Class of 1973 / 1986 / 1996 / 2010

Margaret’s career in hospital pharmacy spans 37 years, starting as a Pharmacy Assistant and retiring as Clinical Director of Pharmacy and Medicines Management at County Durham and Darlington HNS Foundation Trust. Throughout that time, Margaret kept returning to the University of Sunderland to support her professional development and completed four degrees - her first pharmacy degree in the 70s, her MSc in clinical pharmacy in the 80s, her MBA in the 90s and her DProf in the 00s.

Hemant Patel

Class of 1978

Hemant started work in a community pharmacy, as a proprietor and then a director pharmacist. He has served four times as President of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society (1998-99 and 2005-08) and is a Fellow of the Society. He is the long-standing secretary of the North East London Local Pharmaceutical Committee. He has also served as the UK Delegation member for the Pharmaceutical Group of the European Union, and for the Europharm Forum, as a representative for the Community Pharmacy Section of the International Pharmaceutical Federation, and as Vice-President of the Commonwealth Pharmaceutical Association.

Andrew Lane

Class of 1981

Andrew spent his pre-registration year at Boots and progressed to become a Superintendent Pharmacist. In 2004 he set up his own community pharmacy business, AlChem. Andrew is a Past President of the European Pharmacists' Forum, and was a committee member for the Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee. Andrew was elected to the board of the National Pharmacy Association in 2010, initially to represent the South West, became Vice Chairman in 2018, and then Chair in 2019 which is his current position.

Dr Matthew Crum

Class of 2010

Matt undertook a split pre-registration placement between AstraZeneca and the University Hospital of South Manchester. Matt then relocated to Melbourne, Australia to under-take a PhD in Drug Delivery, Pharmaceutics at Monash University. He was then offered a role on the Pfizer Research & Development two-year graduate programme, in Melbourne. Matt now works at Pfizer as a Medical Science Liaison (MSL) in the Rare Disease portfolio. 

Min Na Eii

Class of 2013

Minna moved to Sunderland from Brunei Darussalam in Malaysia and is currently working at South Tyneside and Sunderland NHS Foundation Trust as a front of house admissions ward Advanced Pharmacist Practitioner. Whilst at Sunderland, Minna served as SPSA President in 2012-13 and alongside the Committee also set up the official SPSA Facebook page and blog for the pharmacy society.