Challenging tradition 

I had a pretty typical upbringing and a regular childhood in Turkey. I’m from a more privileged community which was fairly liberal, and quite far from the more religious communities in Turkey. The country also has a sharp contrast between religious, conservative people and liberal people.  

My parents are quite conservative. Within my family, there was often a preoccupation with the clothes I wore and the makeup I was putting on, particularly from my dad. I feel like he learnt this from his parents. I started talking to my dad about these issues and I think he’s changed a lot. Now he's always there for me. 

I grew up in the city of Istanbul where I went to an American high school. I loved biology and physics. When it came to choosing a subject to study at university, I wanted to combine the two and so I opted to study bioengineering at Imperial. 

Navigating life with illness 

Growing up, I had an eating disorder and I struggled with bulimia for five years. During my last year of high school, I was struggling to swallow food. Initially, this was thought to be because of my eating disorder. But after having an endoscopy and several scans, I was diagnosed with Crohn’s disease. My condition does often affect my daily life, but I'm on immunosuppressive medication which helps. I wouldn't say I'm fully in remission, but I'm doing much better. 

As well as Crohn’s, I also have ankylosing spondylitis, which is a long-term condition where joints become inflamed. I was diagnosed with the condition after I noticed my hip joint would keep flaring up following a pulled muscle. I have a slight limp on days when I’m having a flare-up, but thanks to my medication, it's mostly gone. 

The process of getting diagnosed with these conditions was quite hard for me. I had to spend a lot of time getting MRI scans which I found scary. These experiences helped me realise that bioengineering was the right degree for me, as one day, I would love to improve the user experience of MRIs.