‘Trust your instincts’: Rachel Guyll’s story of perseverance, mentorship and pushing through regardless
Alliance Medical’s mobile operations manager tells Synergy about her career journey, her experience working privately and how much she values her role as a mentor
By Marese O'Hagan
By Marese O'Hagan
“A piece of paper can’t define your potential. Your drive and who you are will.” This is how Rachel Guyll concluded a LinkedIn post she published on A-level results day this year, recalling how she didn’t get the grades needed to go down the traditional radiography education path. It was this post that caught Synergy’s eye.
For someone who wanted to pursue radiography since doing work experience in the role aged 14, not getting the grades needed to pursue it should have been a definite knockback. But Rachel pressed on regardless – a recurring pattern in her life – and went on to study at the University of Portsmouth.
Today, Rachel is a mobile operations manager at Alliance Medical, a private healthcare company that offers imaging services across Europe. She began working for the organisation in a graduate role in 2012 and has remained there ever since.
But far from being smooth sailing, Rachel has experienced her fair share of ups and downs. In 2021, she had to take a year and a half off work after being diagnosed with leukaemia. She received a stem cell transplant and returned to work in 2022.
Synergy delves into Rachel’s love for her job, her passion for mentorship and her philosophy for early-career radiographers.
By Marese O'Hagan
By Marese O'Hagan
“A piece of paper can’t define your potential. Your drive and who you are will.” This is how Rachel Guyll concluded a LinkedIn post she published on A-level results day this year, recalling how she didn’t get the grades needed to go down the traditional radiography education path. It was this post that caught Synergy’s eye.
For someone who wanted to pursue radiography since doing work experience in the role aged 14, not getting the grades needed to pursue it should have been a definite knockback. But Rachel pressed on regardless – a recurring pattern in her life – and went on to study at the University of Portsmouth.
Today, Rachel is a mobile operations manager at Alliance Medical, a private healthcare company that offers imaging services across Europe. She began working for the organisation in a graduate role in 2012 and has remained there ever since.
But far from being smooth sailing, Rachel has experienced her fair share of ups and downs. In 2021, she had to take a year and a half off work after being diagnosed with leukaemia. She received a stem cell transplant and returned to work in 2022.
Synergy delves into Rachel’s love for her job, her passion for mentorship and her philosophy for early-career radiographers.
In the beginning
When Rachel found her education plans disrupted after sitting her A-levels in 2006, the University of Portsmouth was offering an additional foundation year of study so that she could still get her degree, despite not having the required grades.
Rachel says that when she graduated from university in 2011, there weren’t a lot of NHS opportunities in her local area, “particularly for anything that was actually going to give me any decent amount of training”. So when a recruitment opportunity came up with private diagnostic imaging service provider Alliance Medical, she grabbed it with both hands. “It fitted what I needed,” she says. While she sees that there are more NHS opportunities locally now, it’s clear that she has no regrets about going into the private sector.
In her first two years after joining Alliance Medical, Rachel worked in X-ray at Royal South Hants Hospital. In 2014, she moved to mobile MRI operations covering the south of the UK.
Her next move to a regional senior role in 2016 – covering Sussex, Hampshire and Berkshire – saw her take on additional responsibilities. “I started taking on my own team and really supporting other people to get what they wanted out of radiography, and helping with training,” she explains.
In the beginning
When Rachel found her education plans disrupted after sitting her A-levels in 2006, the University of Portsmouth was offering an additional foundation year of study so that she could still get her degree, despite not having the required grades.
Rachel says that when she graduated from university in 2011, there weren’t a lot of NHS opportunities in her local area, “particularly for anything that was actually going to give me any decent amount of training”. So when a recruitment opportunity came up with private diagnostic imaging service provider Alliance Medical, she grabbed it with both hands. “It fitted what I needed,” she says. While she sees that there are more NHS opportunities locally now, it’s clear that she has no regrets about going into the private sector.
In her first two years after joining Alliance Medical, Rachel worked in X-ray at Royal South Hants Hospital. In 2014, she moved to mobile MRI operations covering the south of the UK.
Her next move to a regional senior role in 2016 – covering Sussex, Hampshire and Berkshire – saw her take on additional responsibilities. “I started taking on my own team and really supporting other people to get what they wanted out of radiography, and helping with training,” she explains.
‘Supporting people in the background to get those achievements in their own careers is an achievement in itself’
Passion for mentorship
Today, as mobile operations manager for Alliance, Rachel supports around 27 staff across the south of England including clinical assistants, assistant practitioners in training to become radiographers, qualified radiographers and seniors. She describes her role as one that allows her to exercise one of her greatest passions: mentorship. “Watching people, supporting them in the background to get those achievements in their own careers is [an] achievement in itself for me,” she says. “To watch them get the development they want and support them along the way with gentle nudges to go for this and do that, and then get them on those courses. Those are my career highlights.”
The Society of Radiographers supports members working in both the NHS and the private sector across all aspects of their career – from employment guidance and mental health support to professional and financial advice. Rachel gives a lot of credit to her membership with the SoR for supporting her throughout her career. “They [the SoR] provide us with that support in our training, in our development, in the statements that they send out that provide us with the ability to back ourselves in things like PGDs [patient group directions], prescribing and Health and Care Professions Council standards,” she explains.
“It’s a community at the end of the day, which means that you always have that resource to be able to support you – be that at the start of your career, at the end or anywhere in between.”
As a mentor, she identifies the work the SoR does for students and assistant practitioners as being particularly helpful. “I think it’s undervalued,” she adds. It comes as no surprise that Rachel’s career highlights revolve around watching her mentees grow and thrive. She says some of her trainees now have roles as clinical leads.
In 2017, Rachel completed the SoR’s Developing Excellence in Clinical Leadership course. Two years later, she went on maternity leave, and she returned in 2020 to find that her role was fully non-clinical.
Rachel and her family climbing Pen y Fan just a few weeks before her stem cell transplant
Rachel and her family climbing Pen y Fan just a few weeks before her stem cell transplant
Rachel wakeboarding during her university days
Rachel wakeboarding during her university days
A different perspective
Then in 2021, Rachel was diagnosed with leukaemia. Over the next year and a half, she received treatment that included a stem cell transplant, which put her into remission, and she eventually returned to work in 2022.
Being on the receiving end of serious medical treatment emphasised for Rachel just how impactful her role could be for patients. “That gave me another insight into how important it is to be kind to all your patients, and that even those small interactions that you have with them – they stick,” she tells Synergy. “Kindness is really important.”
Despite everything, Rachel adjusted and focused on her passion for mentoring and leading radiographers. “I’m obviously still really passionate about radiographers and developing them,” she continues. “I work quite a lot with our assistant practitioner programme and [University of Cumbria] apprentice radiographers now as well to develop them and get them into the radiography roles they want.”
Since returning to work, Rachel has continued to focus on staff training and development. Specifically, she has worked with the University of Cumbria to support Alliance Medical’s trainee assistant practitioners and its apprentice radiographer. She also works on development plans and training for radiographers to help them reach their goals.
‘Sometimes you have to go on a little bit of a curve to get to where you want to go’
Be resilient
Rachel has come a long way from that fateful A-level results day. From the beginning, her career has presented so many opportunities for her to show her determined nature, and she has consistently modelled that for others.
To anyone who wishes to follow her career path, Rachel’s advice is to keep going – regardless of any challenges that might arise. “Trust your instincts,” she says. “Be resilient. Even if it’s not successful the first time, keep at it, because the rewards are there.
“If you want a radiography role, if you want that career, it is worth it. Even if you get those knockbacks the first time, take the opportunities as they arise. Even if it’s not the straight pathway – sometimes you have to go on a little bit of a curve to get to where you want to go. But it’s worth it in the long run.”
And for the unconvinced, take advice from the LinkedIn post that kicked off this conversation: “Grades can change your route, they can make it challenging, but they don’t have to change your destination.”
Read more
