There are moments in life that seem impossible… until one extraordinary person quietly proves otherwise.
Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!For Alexandra Adams, becoming a doctor was never simply about passing exams or completing years of medical training. It was about refusing to let disability, illness, discrimination and repeated setbacks define what her future could look like.
Now, after a journey spanning more than a decade, Adams has graduated as the UK’s first deafblind doctor, achieving a milestone that once seemed beyond reach after years spent battling serious health problems, extended hospital stays and barriers that repeatedly threatened to end her medical career before it began.
Registered deaf and blind from birth, Adams has lived with disabilities throughout her life. Alongside this, she has also faced a long-term physical disability affecting multiple organ systems and later received a diagnosis of a progressive mitochondrial disorder – a condition that leads to reduced energy production, tissue dysfunction, and worsening organ damage.
Nevertheless, her determination has already inspired thousands online, with more than 95,000 followers on Instagram amazed by Adams’ remarkable story. But her path to qualification has been anything but straightforward.
During the pandemic, Adams spent 17 months in hospital and was forced to take two and a half years away from medical school. Rather than ending her ambition, the setback became another chapter in a story built on resilience.
Speaking about finally reaching the finish line, Adams recently revealed that she has now graduated and is preparing to begin work as a doctor, making history in the process.
Her experiences as a patient have also transformed the kind of doctor she hopes to become. Rather than viewing her disabilities as obstacles inside the consulting room, Adams believes they have helped her develop an understanding of patients that cannot be taught from textbooks. They have also, remarkably, enabled her to identify medical conditions that colleagues have overlooked.
That ability to see medicine from both sides of the hospital bed has shaped her entire approach to healthcare.
On her personal blog, Setting Sights, Adams describes herself as someone driven by adventure, compassion and a determination to make life better for others.
“I am a young, adventurously ambitious female, mid-20’s, with many hopes and dreams. I am a medical student, studying to become one of the next generation’s empathetic, whole-heartedly serving doctors,” she writes.
Her achievements stretch far beyond medicine.
Over the years she has been a solo traveller, public speaker, writer, published poet, artist and a former Great Britain swimmer and skier.
Yet despite those accomplishments, she explains that disability discrimination has remained a constant presence throughout her life – but she is determined to combat the stigma faced by disabled people.
“I am also disabled,” she continues. “I am the UK’s first deaf-blind person training to be a doctor, and have a long-term physical disability of the muscles, affecting a multiple-organ system, often leading me to face the hills and troughs of life and death simultaneously each year.
“One day, I will gradually lose my sight, so I yearn to see and experience the world before it all goes blind.
“Through all this, I somehow still face the secret discrimination still overwhelming our modern day society, every single day, so I feel it is my job to fight this and make the world a better place for others!”
Long before medicine became her focus, Adams had her sights set on representing Great Britain at the London 2012 Paralympic Games.
“As a teenager, I spent life as a full-time athlete, training for Parlaympic participation in London 2012,” she revealed. “This all fell apart after a year of many stomach surgeries, bedbound in hospital for more than a year, and having to restart education altogether. That era was over, and onto another.”
Rather than allowing those events to end her ambitions altogether, they ultimately inspired a new direction.
“My next challenge was to build my strength back up and chase my dream of becoming a doctor and practicing medicine, hence application to medical school was the next phase to begin.” she writes. “Fact is, I love people.
“Perhaps this is one of the many reasons why I am studying the field of healthcare – the science of people and the people of science. Behind every crease of a smile, every smile of a crease, there is an untold story of joy and suffering in every single one of us, and that is what makes the clockworks of humanity so complexly fascinating.”
Getting into medical school, however, was another battle in itself.
“After numerous counts of facing discrimination and exclusion due to my disabilities alone, a spontaneous gap year of traveling the world deaf-blind and solo, to gather headspace and a top-up of determination fuel, I finally managed to get into medical school,” Adams continues.
Unfortunately, the discrimination she had faced throughout her life only extended to medical school.
“But the drama hasn’t stopped there,” she revealed. “Discrimination is still very much rife within medical school and in the outside world, particularly now that I am on the wards and clinics of the local hospitals.”
Her health challenges also continued to escalate.
“My strength and stamina through being a ski-racer has recently dwindled, following a diagnosis of a progressive mitochondrial disorder,” she writes. “[Seventeen] admissions to ICU and a few too many near-death experiences I am now having to re-evaluate life and reconsider my priorities and my own well-being.”
Despite everything she has endured, Adams has consistently focused on encouraging others who face similar struggles.
“Through these blogs, I hence aim to inspire, guide and comfort my readers through all these stories – through health and wellbeing, justice, positivity and old medicinal motivation,” she said.
Her remarkable journey recently reached another landmark as she celebrated not one, but two university degrees.
Alongside completing the medical qualification she had spent more than ten years working towards, Adams also graduated with a master’s degree in creative writing from Northeastern University London.
Reflecting on the achievement, she said: “To be able to come to Northeastern, which is an amazing place and an amazing community, to celebrate not just one but two degrees, I have no words. As a writer, I have no words.”
Her time at the university came after one of the darkest periods of her career, when discrimination during medical training left her believing her dream had come to an end.
“At the time, I genuinely thought it was the end of the road” for her dream of becoming a doctor.
While searching for alternative work, she stumbled across Northeastern’s creative writing course almost by chance.
“In my job search, I randomly came across an advert for a master’s in creative writing at Northeastern University London, and I will admit I’d never heard of a university before,” she revealed. “I did a bit of research and – oh my gosh – it was honestly the best decision I’ve made. Sometimes I think you’ve got to be spontaneous.”
That unexpected decision ultimately helped reopen the door to medicine, allowing Adams to return and complete her medical studies alongside her writing.
Adams now shares a series of myth-busting videos with her social media followers, explaining how she navigates her career in the NHS as a patient-facing doctor.
Her story is one of remarkable perseverance, but for Adams, becoming Britain’s first deaf-blind doctor is not the end of the journey.
Featured image credit: Instagram/@alexandraelaineadams
