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Lucy Rutler, an inspiration to those who believe in ‘it’s never too late’, now feels fulfilled as she graduates this summer from the University of Brighton with a first class Podiatry BSc(Hons) degree, having scored 90 per cent-plus across her final year.

Lucy is now practising at a foot clinic in Shoreham run by a University of Brighton alumni and at a sports clinic in Hove where she is working alongside physiotherapists specialising in foot and ankle musculoskeletal pathology. 

Lucy said: “I am 45 so I think the ‘never too late’ phrase is highly appropriate in my case.

“My father was a GP and my mother an Occupational Therapist so I guess the medicine thing was in my bones. I didn’t really give my future career much thought first time round in my late teens so I just studied what I was most interested in at the time which was basically travelling the world and learning about other cultures. 

“When I took the decision to study again, podiatry appealed because it’s medical, it felt achievable and it really appealed to me to specialise in one part of the body.

Lucy Rutler

“Also feet are so important to maintaining mobility and independence – and I have seen both my parents struggle with this in their later years.

“I absolutely loved the opportunity of studying something new in my 40s and am really excited by my new career. It’s been very tough though balancing the demands of the course with my children’s needs and has resulted in many late nights and lots of parental guilt but it’s doable and I highly recommend it.”