a complete clinical trial and completing this within the three years. I think, even to date,

I appreciate that time management is key. There are so many people to coordinate with that working

flexibly has been a new challenge, something I've learnt over the past few months.

Lis - I think yeah, I agree, time is the biggest challenge for me really, but wider than just

the study itself, I think, because I do some taught courses in the School and I also do

a little bit of paid work and I've got two children. Balancing all of that whilst doing

the full time PhD is quite a challenge! The courses are all distance learning, so at least

that's really flexible and I can log on and do my work when the children have gone to

bed or in the middle of a sleepless night, so that's really good. I do think balancing

all that is the biggest issue for me. Rachel - I think my main challenge, certainly

in the first few weeks, but probably in the first few months of starting my PhD was just the

feeling that you were in over your heard a little bit and that maybe you weren't clever

enough to be doing this because there's all these people around you who talk in this language

and you don't really get it. I know speaking to some of my friends and you guys all nodding

as well, it's something that we all go through; we all have days where we go, 'oh my gosh,

what am I doing?' You have to remember that what you're doing is completely unique, it's

new, that's what makes it exciting and a few months in you're totally immersed in it for

that time, everyone around you are is all involved too and now it's like second nature

to me, I'm speaking the lingo! I know what I'm doing at last. Darel - Similarly, mine

is probably taking the good with the bad, so on days where my experiments don't go right

and I don't get the results I want, not to be completely demoralised and to just go in

the next day and start again, to just plough on with it and to not get disheartened or

really upset about it or that sort of thing.