Karen Cocksedge's daughter’s battle with cancer inspired her to leave her career as an astrophysicist and retrain as a psychiatrist.

At university teaching astrophysics by day and studying GCSE biology by night, Karen, from Truro, had to go back to basics to gain the qualifications needed to start a medical degree. Ten years later and currently a trainee at Addaction in Cornwall, Karen has just been awarded the prestigious Laughlin Award for gaining the UK’s highest grades in her psychiatry exams.

Karen, who started her medical career aged 32 having worked in astrophysics for the previous decade, said: “My little girl had a brain tumour so I took one year out of work to get her through the treatment. It made me rethink everything.

"I decided I wanted to study medicine, but I didn’t rush, wanting to make sure she was OK first. Then I went back to college and did GCSE and A-level biology. It’s been a lot of hard work juggling everything, but it’s the best thing I’ve done. I’m grateful for having a really supportive husband and daughter.”

Karen, now aged 41, has now been a doctor for five years and the award has been given at the end her third year in core psychiatry training. The gruelling exam process involved a practical exam using actors as patients, seeing 16 of them one after the next, with examiners watching all the time.

She said: “The failure rate for the third year exams is something like 60 per cent. I was convinced I had failed and spent a month being really grumpy. When I heard that by some miracle I had passed I was so relieved. To learn of the award was the icing on the cake, I was totally flabbergasted. The last decade has been working towards this and it’s just amazing.”

As a trainee psychiatrist with Addaction, Karen covers the whole of the county, with clinics in each office. The charity provides support and treatment for people for drug, alcohol and mental health issues.

Addaction is the first, third sector service provider in the UK to offer doctors traineeships to gain specialist experience in drug and alcohol addiction. The training is otherwise only available at NHS Trusts that still deliver addiction services, the number of which is reducing all the time as third sector organisations are increasingly becoming the preferred provider.

Addaction Cornwall’s consultant psychiatrist Dr Rupert White said: “Several hundred people from all over the world as well as the UK take these exams. Karen should be very proud, as are we.”

Karen will be presented with her award at the Royal College of Psychiatrists International Congress in London in June. Over the next three years, she plans to specialise in forensic psychiatry.