Student Story: Not all superheroes wear capes

Not all superheroes wear capes, and for Larne’s Jenny Hope, the work she put it in studying with The Open University (OU) to earn the right to wear a lab coat and secure a BSc set her on the path to help fight Covid.

While working her way up from a placement student at Randox in Crumlin, to Lead Technical Scientist, Jenny regularly developed tests to help people by identifying everything from female bladder cancer to thyroid issues, but when Covid presented as a global pandemic, she had to call on everything she’d learnt while studying with the OU and working at Randox to help save more lives.

Jenny and a colleague worked day and night to develop extraction reagents to help deliver a government contract for PCR tests.

“Covid PCR tests were in big demand from 2020 and there was a lack of extraction reagents, so we developed our own,” explained Jenny.

“It was a huge challenge and I had to learn a lot more about molecular biology, and learn quickly, but my OU degree combined with my Randox experience gave me a great foundation to be agile in my approach and find a solution.

“It took 18 months, which is fast to go from feasibility to market. There were lots of regulations and testing to complete, but I’d learnt to be determined while studying for my OU degree and still working. There was a lot to juggle, and I had to focus to succeed, “Jenny added.

It’s not something she could have ever imagined as a six-year-old ‘mixing potions’ in the garden, as an 18-year-old studying economics at Heriot Watt University or as a Detainee Custody Officer (DCO) at the Immigration Service, but her passion for research finally shone through and she fulfilled her dream of helping people through science after completing her OU degree in Health Sciences.

“My mum, Lorraine is my cheerleader and always checks I’m doing things for the right reasons for me. I wasn’t comfortable studying in Scotland so I came back home and worked as a DCI for several years which was a good job, but I still had this desire to explore a career in science and that’s why I opted for the OU as I could study and it was cost effective – I could still earn enough money not to be living on noodles,”.“I love the challenges in my work now – we’re always trying to optimise and make things better which is fantastic, I would encourage everyone to follow their dreams and passions.

“When I take my six-year-old God Daughter, Ella, for trips up to the North Coast, I regularly tell her that she can do whatever she wants. When her brother Owen who’s two is old enough, I’ll tell him that as well, because it’s something I feel really strongly about – no-one should ever put you in a box.