Student wins award for project about health inequalities among the black community

Agapé Thamar, a first-year Pharmacy student at the University of Portsmouth, has won an award from the British Pharmaceutical Students’ Association (BPSA) at their annual awards event.

Agapé was presented with her award for a writing competition entitled “Health Inequalities among the Black Community”.

For her entry, Agapé researched and wrote about ‘Maternity Mortality rates of Black Women in the UK’, a topic she is passionate about. She said: “I chose to focus on the maternity mortality rates of black women in the UK and do some research on why the stats were what they are. Because my topic is very new I didn’t get one specific answer but as long as I am asking the questions I’m going in the right direction. So I’ll just keep asking questions.”

During the awards evening, Agapé spoke to many different delegates, some students, some in their foundation year of training and some having been pharmacists for over 10 years.

She said: “It was an eye-opening evening and I was fortunate enough to get the chance to speak in front of the delegates about why I had chosen my topic and the importance of diversity within pharmacy.

“I’ve always been interested in social determinants in health care, especially because I grew up in a country where social factors had a very direct impact on healthcare. As pharmacy students who will later go into the workforce, we shouldn’t be afraid of having conversations about how other factors such as race, gender and class could affect how people receive treatment. We should be engaged and interested in how we can better the lives of people, especially Black, Asian and other minority ethnic groups.”

Professor Paul Rutter, Professor in Pharmacy Practice, said: “All of us in the School are delighted that Agapé was recognised by the BPSA for her work. Agapé has shown that being passionate and motivated about things she cares about is also something that others recognise as valuable.”