A trainee cardiac physiologist at University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust (UHB) recently returned from Australia after helping Scotland to seventh place in the Women’s Hockey tournament at the 2018 Commonwealth Games.

Rebecca “Bex” Condie is in her third year of the Scientist Training Programme, employed by the Trust as part at the National School of Healthcare Science. However outside of clinical training, she is one of the UK’s best young hockey players.

She said: “I started my role at UHB in 2014, but in order to pursue my dual career, I have split my training year. My department have been fantastic and so supportive of my sporting career.

“I was a late bloomer in hockey. Aged 15, my PE teacher encouraged me to go down the hockey route rather than play football, which looking back was a wise decision.

“I climbed through the ranks pretty quickly, representing Scotland at both under 18 and under 21 levels. I then moved to Birmingham for university and ten years on, University of Birmingham are consistently one of the top four teams in the Investec Women’s Premier Division.

“My Commonwealth journey started four years ago when I was watching two of my closest friends play in Glasgow, for the Welsh team. It was such a phenomenal atmosphere and from then on I decided I wanted to pursue my senior playing career.

“In June 2015 I received my first senior cap for Scotland v Wales and, 44 caps later, I’m now Vice Captain and a Commonwealth athlete.”

Scotland finished Gold Coast 2018 with a total of 44 medals, the nation’s second highest tally in Commonwealth Games history. The haul is their highest at an overseas Games, just nine short of the record 53 won on home soil at Glasgow 2014, and left them eighth in the final Gold Coast medals table. Bex describes the experience of competing as “unbelievable.”

She said: “As a team we set out to play our style of hockey, to attack and show flare. This unfortunately meant we conceded a few goals along the way, but our performances were something to be proud of.

“To play against Australia at home will be something I will never forget. We had a tough pool with both New Zealand and Australia the two finalists in it. Canada was, defensively, a very strong team and Ghana is an unorthodox up-and-coming African nation. We finished seventh in the tournament, with wins against Ghana and Malaysia and a draw against Canada.

“It was such a cool experience to be there with the other athletes from Scotland; there was such a buzz of patriotism in the area we named `Scotland Street`. The athletes’ village was so vibrant and the dinner hall was something else – some would describe it as the best all-inclusive holiday you will ever go on.

“I had a slightly emotional build-up to the Games, fracturing and displacing my first metacarpal four weeks before the start of the tournament. It was a bit touch-and-go whether I would be allowed to play, but thanks to the fantastic medical team around me, my dream came true.”

With the Commonwealth Games coming to Birmingham in 2022, is Bex gearing up to lace up her boots on home turf? She said: “The attraction of there being a Commonwealth Games in my hometown and on my club pitch is extremely exciting, plus Birmingham is a little less travel for my family and friends to come and watch compared to the Gold Coast.

“Nevertheless, I’m currently just enjoying some downtime and any decisions about my future involvement in hockey will be made in due course. Most importantly, 12 years on, I’m still playing the game I love.”