Alumni Stories: Changing people’s lives overnight
Professor Dan Perry (Class of 2003) is a Consultant Paediatric Orthopaedic Surgeon at Alder Hey Children’s Hospital and Professor in children’s orthopaedic surgery and emergency care.
He is also the first orthopaedic surgeon and the first academic from the University of Liverpool to be awarded a National Institute of Health Research (NIHR) Research Professorship for research in the NHS.
It's really exciting, it’s the flagship award from the NIHR so basically it's an investment in me to be able to set up a group here in Liverpool.
"A group of like-minded academics, clinicians, trial managers and other roles whereby we can start to establish real expertise.”
In this video interview, the former President of Liverpool Medical Students’ Society (LMSS) journeys back to his days at the School, how throwing himself into society activities helped him make long-lasting friendships and not be so homesick! And how he has always found courage in the face of adversity to achieve what he was told was impossible, or had never been done before.
“I'm from a ‘normal’ school, a comprehensive school, and I remember there was a careers day and the careers tutor told us that if anyone wants to be a doctor or a barrister or a dentist that they should just forget about it, because you guys aren't going to get there."
That was kind of really an incentive for me to really push it and really go for it and I pushed it and went for it.
Professor Perry remembers the first time he set foot on the ward at Alder Hey. Little did he know he know the huge part the Trust would play in his future medical career.
“It's a small hospital as hospitals go, but it's still the biggest children's hospital in Europe. So it’s got all the great things that small hospitals have, the friendliness, the being part of a family, but we’ve also got all the kit and all of the things that you could possibly ever need to be a world class hospital, which is great.”
What Professor Perry loves most about his specialty is the immediate impact it has,
We change people's lives overnight so there's none of this, you know, give them a medicine and change their life in the next five years.
"We literally do a hip replacement and will change their life overnight because it's the second best operation we can do according to the World Health Organization. The first being cataracts.”
His biggest piece of advice to student doctors? “Just go for it to do it to throw yourself into it, to put your hand up, to say yes, not to be scared."
It's very easy to think that other people are better than you but I think that the likelihood is that everyone's in exactly the same boat.
"I think you just need to get involved as much as you can, make lots of friends, make yourself feel at home and that will give you the starting point to really move forward.”
Discover more
- Watch the complete video (16 minutes) to hear more about Professor Dan Perry’s career in orthopaedic surgery (link).
- Interested in orthopaedics? Why not join Liverpool Orthopaedic and Trauma Society via the Guild (link).
- Looking to make new friends? Get involved with the LMSS (link) or one of the other hundreds of societies running at the University. See an A-Z list on the Guild website (link).
- Get insights and advice from School Alumni as they reminisce on their days at Liverpool and the careers they went on to create on our Alumni Stories webpage (link).