The voting has now closed to decide which charities GEMSoc will support. The winners are:

Local charity - The Local Air Ambulance

National charity - MacMillan Cancer Care

International charity - MSF

Thank you for your votes!

Graduate Entry Medical students proved a success rowing for Derby Rowing Club at Royal Chester’s 5k North of England Head of the River Race on Saturday.  Rowing in the Derby University first eight (Sen4 8+), GEM’s Lee Garratt and Tom Kemp destroyed their opposition, passing Lancaster University 2nd eight within one kilometre off the start and swiftly putting Trafford RC, Agecroft RC, Northwich RC, Kings, Liverpool and Salford Universities out of contention. Despite driving down the lead obtained by Lancaster University’s 1st eight, they eventually had to settle for third place in what proved to be a very hard fought race. 

In their first race (Nov 8+), novice GEM rowers William Aston, Andrew Boothroyd, David Bloomfield and David “Dolph” Robertshaw produced a sterling performance under what proved to be challenging conditions for any rower.  Battling high winds and late crew substitutions they dug deep to gain a substantial lead over Liverpool, REX and Salford novice eights, finishing well within the pack and beating Manchester University and Bridgnorth RC to 10th place in an extremely tight finish.  An excellent start, we can certainly expect good things from these chaps over the coming regatta season.

Pictures, top; Lee Garratt (4), Tom Kemp (2). Bottom; from bow, Will Aston, Andrew Boothroyd, David Bloomfield and David Robertshaw.

The sheet has been on the board, you have nominated your charities - now it is time to vote. We need to nominate 1 local, 1 national and 1 international charity for GEMSOC to support this year.  Please use the polls section to cast your votes.

 Please note the deadline for you to cast your votes is the 14th Feb.

The first set of minutes from the new GEMSoc committee...