{"id":9164,"date":"2018-06-01T16:30:15","date_gmt":"2018-06-01T15:30:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ounews.co\/?p=9164"},"modified":"2018-06-01T16:30:15","modified_gmt":"2018-06-01T15:30:15","slug":"a-phd-isnt-possible-with-three-children-is-it-diane-would-argue-otherwise","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/student-stories\/a-phd-isnt-possible-with-three-children-is-it-diane-would-argue-otherwise\/","title":{"rendered":"A PhD isn\u2019t possible with three children, is it? Diane would argue otherwise"},"content":{"rendered":"

Originally from the Isles of Scilly, in 2009, Diane Coral Turner, 42, enrolled on her part-time PhD with The Open University, collaborating with Amersham Hospital<\/a> and Medical Detection Dogs<\/a> to develop techniques for diagnosing bladder cancer. After having a child in 2010 and twins in 2012, she wanted a break from study. When her twins started school in 2016, she went back to her PhD again, completing it in January 2017, proving that it is possible to achieve a PhD with a full-time job and a young family.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

From the Isles of Scilly to coral reefs in Fiji<\/h2>\n

\u201cI was born and went to school in the Isles of Scilly. I did my A-Levels in Cornwall before going to the University of Warwick to study a BSc (Hons) and then my Masters.<\/p>\n

\u201cI then moved to Cambridge in January 2000, after surveying coral reefs in the Philippines to support marine-protected areas, to start an applications laboratory at a small gas chromatography instrument distribution company, which was very successful. I left in 2005 \u2013 to survey coral reefs for the same charity in Fiji \u2013 and on my return started Anthias Consulting<\/em><\/a> in June 2005.\u201d<\/p>\n

Diagnosing diseases and detecting bladder cancer<\/h2>\n

\u201cI met Dr Geraint (Taff) Morgan<\/a> in 2004.\u00a0I started working with Taff in 2006 as a consultant for the OU, analysing samples and teaching PhD students how to use the laboratory instrumentation.\u00a0In 2007, the OU started hosting my company\u2019s training courses.<\/p>\n

\u201cTwo years later, I decided to start a part-time PhD, funded by my company, carrying on the research into bladder cancer detection and disease diagnosis that I had previously supported Dr Morgan with. During my PhD, I worked with Amersham Hospital, Cranfield University<\/a>, and the charity, Medical Detection Dogs, with Dr Morgan as my PhD supervisor.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMy PhD had to be last on my list of priorities\u201d<\/h2>\n

\u201cRunning a business, employing and managing colleagues, and doing lots of travelling to customer sites around the world left me struggling to complete my PhD. It was always third on my list of priorities, after my family and my business (especially as my business was financing my studies).<\/p>\n

\u201cIt wasn\u2019t until after my twins started school in September 2016 that I found the time to start writing up my thesis. This was a mission, as I had to complete it in less than two months \u2013 although I received an extension for a further three months \u2013 only working on it at weekends and during the evenings, as running a business with eight employees is a full-time job! I wrote 50,000 words in the first six weeks.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u201cMy three children are so proud of me for the \u2018book\u2019 I have written\u201d<\/h2>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t think that my PhD would help me so much in my career, but I have already been proved wrong as I have been doing some expert witness work, that wouldn\u2019t have been possible without it. It also helps on the various committees and councils that I stand on, including the Royal Society of Chemistry Analytical Division Council.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Open University is so supportive and understanding \u2013 I would not have been able to achieve my PhD without that. My three children are so proud of me for the \u2018book\u2019 I have written, which is what I said I was doing when I was in the office above the garage writing my thesis at the weekends and not spending time with them. Yes, there were many tears during that time, but on the day that I submitted it I showed them what I had written and they now all want to write one too. They call me \u2018Dr Di\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Originally from the Isles of Scilly, in 2009, Diane Coral Turner, 42, enrolled on her part-time PhD with The Open University, collaborating with Amersham Hospital and Medical Detection Dogs to develop techniques for diagnosing bladder cancer. After having a child in 2010 and twins in 2012, she wanted a break from study. When her twins […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":9166,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30,18],"tags":[137,388,677,861,1704],"class_list":["post-9164","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-science-environment","category-student-stories","tag-anthias-consulting","tag-case-study","tag-dr-geraint-morgan","tag-faculty-of-stem","tag-phd"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9164","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9164"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9164\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9166"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9164"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9164"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9164"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}