How Northam student and young carer Joshua Patrick overcame ‘imposter syndrome’ to qualify for medical school

Living in a rural town and missing years of schooling because of round-the-clock caring duties do not usually add up to top grades. Like many others, Joshua Patrick believed those barriers meant his dream of becoming a doctor was probably unattainable. But on Christmas Eve, the Northam Senior High School graduate received an offer of a coveted place in the assured pathway to medical school at the University of WA. Joshua, 17, described his education as a “roller-coaster” since he was six years old, when his sister Charlotte was born with complex disabilities. “For the next couple of years, at least, I spent more time in hospital looking after Charlotte and taking care of her needs, than I did in school,” he said. “I just had to take the opportunities that sitting in a hospital ward, bored, gave me, and dedicated that time to learning how to learn myself.” Charlotte, 11, has multiple medical issues including cerebral palsy, pulmonary hypoplasia, a seizure disorder, intellectual disability and non-verbal autism. Joshua stepped up to help provide care such as feeding Charlotte via a tube, medications, physiotherapy exercises and personal care tasks. His attendance remained poor, even in Years 11 and 12, but he persuaded his school to provide extra support so he could complete work at home. He tackled six ATAR courses, including two advanced maths subjects, and blitzed a two-year online preparation course for nursing studies in his first semester of Year 11. Despite all his hard work, Joshua was resigned to not getting the marks that he needed to get him across the line for medicine — not to mention also passing an aptitude test and interview. He said getting into the highly competitive medicine pathway at UWA required a minimum Australian Tertiary Admission Rank of 98. Living in a regional area gave him five bonus points, which meant he had to attain an ATAR of at least 93. To his surprise, he achieved an ATAR of 94.5. Joshua posted his good news to his followers on Linkedin, adding: “This was my first choice and also the one I quietly believed was out of reach. “For a long time, imposter syndrome told me that young people don’t end up here. “That a young carer, shaped by instability, responsibility beyond my years and a non-linear educational journey, somehow didn’t belong in spaces like UWA Medicine. “Today is a reminder that doubt does not get the final say. “This offer is not just an academic milestone. It represents years of perseverance through uncertainty, balancing care with study, learning to back myself when confidence wavered and choosing to keep going when the path felt fragile.” On top of his caring duties and studies, Joshua has also been an advocate for other young carers. He previously featured in The Sunday Times for delivering a stirring TEDxYouth talk in 2022, when he was just 14. He has also been named Community Youth Citizen of the Year, a Lions Youth of the Year State Winner, and volunteered at The Kids Research Institute Australia. Joshua believes more could be done for others like him, to help make ATAR courses accessible for students who have a caring role or can’t attend school for other reasons. That could include recording lessons or allowing students to watch via a zoom call. “It would allow these students to participate in the classroom while participating in the caring role at the same time,” he said. “But also just having an understanding that there are students out there that are not attending because they can’t, not because they don’t want to.” Not only did he win a place at UWA, Joshua has also been awarded a scholarship that will allow him to live on campus while studying. Proud mum Laura West said they had tried to be realistic in the lead-up to exams, locking in a plan B, because Joshua’s predicted score had been lower than he ended up getting. “We’d almost put that dream (of medicine) to bed a bit,” she said. “When he got the score, it was just absolute shock, and just hoping that would be sufficient to let him actually study medicine.” But she had no doubt the resilience and compassion Joshua had developed through his long years of caring would make him a better doctor. “It’s given him this broad perspective that basically has probably inspired him to want to study medicine and be a doctor that sees the full context, sees the family, and actually understands some of the challenges that are facing the patient and the family and the carers,” she said. “Obviously we’re incredibly proud, just seeing how driven he is to become a doctor and a professional who’s going to have such a grounded, lived experience to draw on when he’s dealing with patients and their carers.”