The Student Voice Prize
The Student Voice Prize Hall of Fame
We are delighted to say that year is the 10th time we’ll be running The Student Voice Prize.
For the past nine years, we’ve searched the world for the top student rare disease essays and we’re proud to say we’ve found them.
Take a look at the brilliant minds who have come before you and give their winning essays a read.
The Student Voice Prize 2023
Winner
Leisha Devisetti
Leisha studies Molecular Cell Biology at the University of California, Berkeley.
Essay title: Investigating Communication Around Uncertainty: Implications on Patient and Family Well-Being
Essay question: Using a case study, explore how uncertainty can impact people living with rare disease and their families. Consider the psychological, emotional, and practical effects of effective and ineffective medical communication around uncertainty and health.
English as a second language winner
Diya Porwal
Battling uncertainty: The story of a SCAD survivor
Runner up
Chandan Sekhon
Rare Diseases: How Language and Format Affect Inclusive Study Recruitment and Recommendations to Mitigate this
Runner up
Oreoluwatoni Oduwole
Navigating a Rare Diagnosis: Sources of Information and the Medical Professional’s Role
The Student Voice Prize 2022
Winner
Zheqing Zhang
Zheqing was a third-year medical student at The University of Oxford.
Essay title: Diagnosing Rare Diseases: A Family’s Story
Essay question: Diagnosis can be a challenging journey for many people living with a rare condition. Compare and contrast the diagnostic journey of two or more people/families living with a rare condition, reflecting on the impact of these experiences on their mental well-being.
Runner up
Olivia Noone
Behçet’s Disease: Diverse Manifestations in Both Brain and Body
Runner up
Chloe Yallop
The ‘diagnostic odyssey’ – a unique and unpredictable journey toward hope
The Student Voice Prize 2021
Winner
Zainab Alani
Zainab is a first-year medical student at The University of Glasgow.
Essay title: Exploring Intersectionality; an international yet individual issue
Essay question: A wide range of factors, such as race, wealth, and gender, can impact an individual’s experience of healthcare and society in general. This is known as intersectionality. Use a case study to demonstrate the specific challenges faced by patients with rare diseases on a daily basis. Discuss how intersectionality can mean that these people experience greater disadvantages.
Runner up
Ana Maria Lopez-Ruiz
An Eye for an Eye – How Comparisons Between Cystinosis and Type 1 Diabetes Can Reveal Health Inequalities for Patients With Rare Diseases.
Runner up
Gavin Choong
Intersectionality in the diagnosis and treatment of Elephantiasis- A case study
Runner up
Meagan Collins
Looking Through a New Lens: Insights into Patient Participation in Rare Disease Research
The Student Voice Prize 2020
Winner
Catriona Chaplin
Catriona was a medical student at Barts and London.
Essay title: Unmasked: an insight into three patients’ rare disease experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic
Essay question: Reflect on the impact of shielding during COVID-19 on rare disease patients and their families. How has COVID-19 changed the rare disease experience?
Runner up
Sanjana Ashok
Rare Disease Research: What challenges have presented in a global pandemic?
The Student Voice Prize 2019
The Student Voice 2019 saw the continued growth of the competition, with more entries and more winners than ever before.
Runner-up
Muhammad Shaikh
Improving Rare Disease Recognition Via Medical Education
The Student Voice Prize 2018
The Student Voice 2018 saw us offer, for the first time, the opportunity for students to be paired with rare disease patient groups to learn from their real life stories.
Winner
Logan Williams
Repurposing a rare opportunity: a brief insight into how implicit bias towards biomedicine impacts the care received by patients with a rare illness
Runner-up
Maisha Umama
Four things I learned from an individual with fibrous dysplasia
Runner-up
Naomi Morka
When a mother flees from her newborn’ – comparing Harlequin Ichthyosis cases in Nigeria and the United Kingdom
The Student Voice Prize 2017
Winner
Mariam Al-Attar
TRAPPED – an insight into two sisters’ struggle to access treatment for a rare genetic disease
Runner-up
Rupa Kumar
Raising the flag for orphan diseases – opportunities and challenges for medical students and researchers
Runner-up
Simon Westby
An odyssey not alone
Runner-up
George Wood
Collaboration is helping medical professionals and patients with rare diseases to face their challenges
The Student Voice Prize 2016
Winner
Rebecca Nunn
It’s not all in my head!” – The complex relationship between rare diseases and mental health problems
Runner-up
Srinivasa Rambhatla
Implementing the UK Strategy for Rare Diseases more effectively: A patient perspective of the complex relationship between rare diseases and mental health problems
Runner-up
Ferenc Gutai
The rare disease revolution: how it will help shape the future of medicine
The Student Voice Prize 2015
Winner
Roberta Garau
The medical experience of a patient with a rare disease and her family
Runner-up
Mark Jacunski
There is more than one way to show a treatment works
The Student Voice Prize 2014
The first-ever Student Voice Prize essay competition was run in 2014, with the idea conceived by one of Beacon’s (then called Findacure) first interns.
Winner
Rosemary Grain
Runner-up
Benjamin Ng
Runner-up
Anne Fitzgibbon