A newly qualified doctor from Cornwall has put her skills to work earlier than expected after working on the frontline against coronavirus.

Tegen Williams, 25, originally from Penzance, graduated as a doctor in April and found herself immediately put into action in Charing Cross Hospital to help in the fight against Covid-19.

Her mum Carolyn Challinor said that while she was proud of her daughter in offering her help it had also been a worrying time.

She said: “On graduating in April and with Covid raging and the need for medics, Tegen chose to go straight into working on the frontline in Charing Cross Hospital, where she remains at present.

“I am so proud of her, but it has been worrying knowing that she is working on the Covid ward.”

She added: “It is inspiring that she has chosen to do this – a lot of them have done it. It is not how she expected to start her career but she said that it had been really good for her and the experience of working alongside those in the hospital.

“There was a strange point recently when a couple of nurses came in and asked her 'are you the doctor?' and she was able to say 'yes I am' – it was that realisation that she was now working in the job she has worked so hard for.”

Carolyn said that Tegen had first expressed a desire to become a doctor while she was a student at Cape Cornwall School. As she herself had worked in care and the NHS there was another influence on her daughter’s choice of career.

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“One of the staff at the school suggested it to her and she has worked her socks off to get where she is,” she said.

Tegen went to Truro College where she got A* grades in her A-levels and landed a place at Imperial College – her first choice.

Before going to university she took a gap year, where she went on an introduction to medicine course in Cambridge as well as going to Kenya to work in a hospital there for three months.

Tegen has also achieved an interim degree in neuroscience alongside qualifying as a doctor.

She is set to start working in Tunbridge Wells and her mum says that she has a particular interest in palliative care and geriatrics.

Carolyn said: “I am so proud of her and all the work she has done to get where she is.

“We are so grateful to Cape Cornwall school and Truro College for all they did as well as the encouragement she had when doing work experience placements at Treliske and as a volunteer at St Julia’s Hospice in Hayle.”