Meet Specialist Clinical Pharmacist, Lidia Ciesielska who shares her story

My pharmacy journey

I came to England in June 2011 together with my husband and two sons who were 5 and 3 years old that time.

After sorting places in school and nursery for my boys I decided to learn English language because I spoke only a few words. I went for ab ESOL course and passed 3 levels. When I felt a bit more confident about my language skills, I decided to do a Functional Skills course. In the meantime, I started to work as a cleaner in private houses. I worked between school runs to be able to drop off and pick up my boys who attended a primary school. I attended my course three times a week in the evenings.

One of the people I worked for was a pharmacist and she encouraged me to go for a pharmacy course, because medicine was always my big passion.

I was not confident enough, but I decided to give myself a chance. I started an Access for HE diploma in September 2017 which I successfully completed it in June 2018 and secured my place at Liverpool John Moores University. During my Access course, I applied to work as a shop assistant in my local pharmacy. The owner agreed to give me a part time position.

Those four years where very difficult and challenging, being a mum of two, a housewife, a part time worker and a student at the same time. In 2020, during my second year, the Covid pandemic began, and I spent four weeks in bed and one hospital admission due to infection. It took a long time before I fully recovered, but I had to keep going to make sure I could finish my education in time. 

I passed all my exams and successfully graduated in 2022. In June the same year I started the Foundation Pharmacist course in the same pharmacy where I’ve been working for four years. It was another challenging year, because I was studying for my GPhC exam, and I was helping to prepare my son for his GCSE exams. Thankfully, we both passed. I have started my pharmacist’s journey from September 2023.

I was very surprised how different pharmacy is in the UK, compared to my country, Poland. Being a pharmacist in England is to focus on patients and their needs, rather than only on medication.

The biggest challenge for me is to provide all the services, but even though it is a big responsibility, I like the idea that when people think about their health, they can think about us, pharmacists, as the first point of help.