Have you ever had a total fresh start 35+?

It’s a long answer so apologies in advance but I’ll give you all the background and advice I can: Dad encouraged me when I was a teenager and like all good teenagers I ignored my parents. I was always sporty and he trained as a sports massage therapist in the late 90s (he was a serious distance athlete at the time), but in order to get treatment himself he taught me how to do it so I could fix his own muscle tension and injuries. Sports Massage Therapy was very niche back then, now you can get it anywhere. I qualified myself in 2019 and worked as a SMT as a side hustle for the past 6 years, loved it, encountered more and more patients with complex conditions and wanted to be able to do more. Physio seemed the logical next step. I’d worked in construction for 10 years and IT support for 9 years before that. I applied to uni thinking as a mature student with a lot of experience I’d be a shoe-in - I wasn’t. I overestimated what I knew and in the meantime the government made it mandatory for all students studying all healthcare degrees to have at least a C grade (or equivalent grade 4) in English, Maths and Science, preferably Biology. I had D’s in Maths and Biology so I had to redo them. I used a company called A Star Equivalency. It’s all online and you do it at your own pace, no structured classes or tutoring, it’s all videos and practice tests. Smashed the Biology and got a healthy high C(grade 4) in Maths. While doing this I contacted a specialist organisation that treated people with Parkinson’s Disease and shadowed the physios to see what they do, how they assess, and what they treat. This gave me an insight to the Neuro side of physio, which is one of the three main areas. The other (alongside musculoskeletal) is Respiratory. I contacted a physio doing his phd on early interventions in breathing pattern disorders and was able to take part in his tests (in simple terms it was lung capacity and efficiency at refilling your lungs with oxygen). It allowed me to ask him questions about Res in general and what he would do in example situations. All of that helped me meet the entry requirements, but that was only half of it. All unis are different but my rejection the first time around was from a combination of a lack of research about the profession as much as the academic stuff, as most unis will offer a Foundation year without needing to redo your GCSEs for example. Most of the mature students on my degree came in this way. They’ll want to know several key things: 1: why physiotherapy - I’ll tell you now for nothing that wanting to be a physio for a professional sports team is not what they want to hear 2: why their uni (proximity cannot be your reason!) 3: whether you have the right values for the profession: this will be about the 6 C’s of the NHS (look them up), and the 4 main pillars of practice of the CSP (look them up) 4: what would you do in [example situations] 5: do you have any questions for them: these could be anything you want to know, but what really impresses your interviewer is asking them why they chose physiotherapy and why they chose a particular area of it. *Always* ask questions when given the opportunity, saying nothing gives a bad impression, even if you’re only trying to take on board what they’re telling you as I was. If you’re seriously thinking about applying, do it before Christmas as a lot of places get oversubscribed quickly. Waiting to try through Clearing is very dicey. Speak to Admissions and attend Open Days - most unis do virtual ones if you can’t make it. Do take the time to do your own research as you’ll get an idea whether it is actually something you want to do. Lastly, I’ll say it’s been a fucking long road getting there. I used up all my savings supporting myself and my family while studying and shadowing other physios and everything was riding on my getting into uni last month. I got my maths grade the Friday before term started. If I had failed I’d have been fucked. Luckily my hard work paid off but it’s literally only the beginning, I’ve got three years to go! Happy to answer any further questions but hopefully you’ve got loads to go on if you’ve managed to read this far 😬