Growing up Abi Wattleworth never knew what she wanted to do for a job but when she helped her grandma who was ill, it set in motion a well-rounded career path in pharmacy.

“A lot of my involvement with pharmacy came because of my grandma because she was always so poorly,” Wattleworth, 35, tells C+D.

“There was a prescription every other day for her, so I was always going there to pick up. Then they said, ‘do you want a job?’ and I said ‘yes’. I gradually just fell in love with it more and more.”

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Starting 15 years ago, the job Wattleworth took was as a delivery driver for the local independent pharmacy before moving onto a dispenser role there.

Now, she’s completed three years of her MPharm degree at the University of Huddersfield and is the British Pharmaceutical Students' Association’s (BPSA) David Kearney award winner for 2024/25 for her outstanding contributions to the sector.

“I started as a delivery driver and I’ve literally done every job, and it got to the point where I said, ‘pharmacist next’.”

Perspectives

In the 15 years between starting out in her local community pharmacy to coming towards the end of her MPharm, Wattleworth originally chose a different degree studying psychology at the Open University.

During this time, Wattleworth started working at Well pharmacies in the Oldham area and started working her way up the career ladder.

She began as a dispenser before completing a pharmacy technician course.

“I just wanted to progress. There was an accuracy checking pharmacy technician (ACT) in the branch. I used to see her checking blister packs. I thought, ‘surely I can do that’.”

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She moved into an ACT role and took on “a lot more responsibility” before training to do vaccinations too.

But during COVID-19, she remembers working with locums and seeing what they earned - which partly drove her towards taking the next step up the pharmacy career ladder.

“My dad said, ‘you could be a good pharmacist’, so I applied for the foundation year at Huddersfield. They said, ‘with your background, we definitely want you’.”

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The variety of Wattleworth’s roles has given her an incredible insight into the first-hand realities of working in each pharmacy position and understanding her colleagues better.

“It just gives you a whole different perspective on everything within pharmacy. It’ll be my 10^th year next year [at Well].

“I know what it's like to be a driver and having deliveries thrown at you, so I understand everybody's point of view now.”

More responsibilities

Wattleworth’s rise through the pharmacy ranks saw her begin her MPharm in her thirties, but starting out as a mature student hasn’t stopped her embracing the roles on offer.

She is a BPSA student representative and an International Pharmaceutical Students' Federation (IPSF) Europe office sponsorship coordinator.

It’s her work in these roles alongside her contributions doing flu and COVID vaccinations, as well as being a Pharmacy First champion in her area at Well that helped her win the BPSA’s David Kearney award.

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“It's the biggest honour and privilege to win that award. I am the most mature student. They always call me the BPSA mum because I look after everybody and make sure they’re ok!”

Looking ahead to graduating, she knows there’ll be challenges she’s yet to experience despite her years across community pharmacy roles.

“Changing from being the ACT to the pharmacist and being the one with responsibility for everything - I love being in that little dispensary team, but to change your role and be really in charge of everything, it's going to be a massive change.”

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Wattleworth has already begun having that extra responsibility with her role as a team leader for Well’s relief team.

But she’s excited to start doing some of the things she’s not be able to do yet in her previous roles.

“All the new services that have come out now such as Pharmacy First and obviously the NHS putting all this new plan in place. I can't wait to get my hands on all the services and get going with things!”