b'EMPOWERED TO INSPIRE, ACHIEVE AND LEAD TOGETHEREMPOWERED TO INSPIRE, ACHIEVE AND LEAD TOGETHEREMPOWERED TO INSPIRE, ACHIEVE AND LEAD TOGETHEREMPOWERED TO INSPIRE,VETERINARY WOMAN CHAMPIONS FOR CHANGEACHIEVE & LEAD TOGETHERSmall differences, such as struggles to pay for social events, would often inadvertently single me out. My parents were an enormous support, but it made me realise how difficult this would be for someone who was not fortunate enough to have the close family support or financial means to fund the education I had dreamed about all of my life. How have you encouraged other people to get on board with your ideas?The fact that I have real life, lived experiences of some of the problems that I am trying to solve is a big benefit when trying to get people on board. People often have questions, and I am always happy to answer them from either my point of view or by using evidence. It has been enormously helpful that the mental health, early careers behaviour and socioeconomic demographic of the veterinary profession have become interesting topics for research, and so I spend a lot of time reading and gathering facts that support any initiatives I am working on. You can do it if you want it bad enough.At the end of the day, it is just helping people understand the why when it comes to change - and for some people the use of storytelling is more powerful than statistics and vice versa, so I tend to use both. I also think it can be helpful to try and tell the story in reverse; explaining what your goal is and how much better this would make things if we got to that place. Have a goal and keep revisiting it and coming back to it- especially if its a big one!What are the biggest challenges you have encountered in this journey and how have you overcome them?Getting people to believe that change is the right thing to do in the areas above has never been a problem: nobody wants graduates to leave, everyone wants clinicians to have a voice and to be heard, and everyone wants a more sustainable and diverse profession. The most challenging aspect of these pieces of change is helping people realise it is possible to www.veterinarywoman.co.uk 47'