Ash Nicholls once played for England at Wembley – now he works for Cancer Research UK, conducting experiments to find drugs that he hopes could one day save a child’s life.
The former professional footballer-turned-scientist spoke about his vital work to i, and said: “We’re trying to end the conversation that goes, ‘There’s nothing more we can do for your child.”
Mr Nicholls, 39, screens for drugs that could prevent children who have recovered from leukaemia from becoming ill again. He spends his days – and sometimes nights – in a laboratory in Cambridge, conducting experiments and talking to other scientists about new research.
His work also involves finding medicines that can improve quality of life, and give the patient extra time. “The drug might not be curative, but it could extend their lives by two or three years,” he said. “It’s a quickly moving field, so in those years something else could come out that would help.”
It was not a life Mr Nicholls envisioned for himself 20 years ago. As a graduate of Ipswich Town’s youth academy, the prospect of a glittering career in football beckoned.
His early promise resulted in him being selected to play for England Schoolboys U-18s and culminated in the Wembley appearance against Hungary. A professional career did follow but at less glamorous locations such as Darlington FC and Cambridge United and a host of top non-league clubs.
Despite leaving school to play football, Nicholls’ teachers encouraged him to study science at A Level remotely alongside his training, and would help him outside of school hours.
He said: “I remember having a conversation with my mum and struggling to decide what to do. My friends were going to university and part of me wanted to do that too, but my mum said, ‘You may not get this chance again. Some opportunities only come around once in a lifetime.
“If you decide it’s not for you or things don’t work out, then you can still go to university in a couple of years.’”
By the age of 23 he was grateful he had continued studying. “I was starting to get tired of professional football: the commitment to nutrition, making sure I was in peak physical condition, being away from home, sitting on a coach for hours to play away games and staying in hotels and the isolation that came with it all. It was starting to get harder, physically and mentally.
“It’s harsh, but by the time you’re 22 or 23 in football, you know how far you’re going to go. If you’re not a superstar by then, you’re probably going to decline until you’re 30, then end up doing not very much at all.”
The Professional Footballers’ Association helped him get accepted onto a molecular biology degree course and a whole new career came into view.
“When you play football, you forget how to learn. There’s not a lot that’s not instinct, especially in this country. As a youngster, it’s all about natural ability. You use your back brain to react.”
But football did make the switch easier. Playing once or twice a week earned him enough money to fund his studies and a year-long internship at the Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge.
“When I was playing semi-professional football alongside my other job, I was having to drive all the way to Newcastle on a Tuesday night, get home at 2am and then go to work the next day at 9am. But football gave me the opportunity to be able to work for free.
“I feel for people who want to switch careers, but they haven’t got the cash to work for a year for free to get the experience asked for by employers.
“The reality is I have never really had any idea what I wanted to be. I just got involved in things I thought were positive, I enjoyed doing and found interesting. When something stopped being fun, I switched my focus to something more positive.”
He now makes far less as a researcher than a footballer, but finds it more fulfilling. “At Cancer Research UK, I really feel like I am helping people. That was important to me after playing football for so many years because I really don’t feel I helped anyone but myself in that time.
“You help the team, and football provides a support network for fans, but you don’t feel personally responsible for the supporters.”
A career kicking a football also taught him the importance of being able to connect with an audience. “Footballers in general are very approachable. The majority of them are working-class people who come from all kinds of backgrounds and are a good representation of the population.
“It is really important for scientists to do that. If the pandemic has taught scientists one thing, it’s that you need to communicate clearly, making things accessible to the public so they understand what you’re researching and how.
“If you can’t tell somebody, in layman’s terms, why what you’re doing is important, they’re not going to support it. If I can explain the project to my mum so she understands it, I know it’s a good project.”
Taking drugs from the research stage to being available to patients is a process that can take 20 years or more. Mr Nicholls’s research, which involves screening about a million compounds, is still in the early stages even after five years. Some appear to have the potential to enter preclinical stages of testing.
He said: “Most of these projects never work, but this is one box I wanted to tick as a scientist. Creating a drug that could save lives would be the highlight of any part of my career.”
Ash is supporting Cancer Research UK for Children & Young People, in partnership with TK Maxx, this Childhood Cancer Awareness Month. To find out more about their work to improve outcomes for children and young people with cancer visit: cruk.org
from Football – inews.co.uk https://ift.tt/2WKf5NP
Post a Comment