Aisha Tukur
“It’s an honour and a privilege to be featured in a piece this big.”
Metian Parsanka’s gaze is fixed on a giant image of herself on the side of the Nuffield Suite at Guy’s Hospital in Southwark, south London.
The mural, which features her and five other African women who have worked in healthcare in the UK, has a background motif of medicinal plants from the continent.
“It communicates the multicultural workforce that makes up the NHS,” Ms Parsanka says.
She is a specialist occupational therapist in the accident and emergency department at St Thomas’ Hospital, part of the same trust as Guy’s.
Ms Parsanka, who was born in a small village in Kenya, came to the UK when she was 14 and is the only person featured in the mural still working at the trust.
She says she likes her image, adding: “It’s much bigger than I thought it would be.
“I am surprised, privileged and happy to be able to represent my culture and profession amongst such accomplished women.”
The artist behind the project, Dr Michele Curtis, says she does not think people realise how brave women are to leave their home country, not knowing how they are going to be received, and “yet still achieve so much”.
Dr Curtis told BBC London that the mural, which is the third in a series, was the product of a research initiative by the Young Historians Project which included young people of African and Caribbean descent.
She says she hopes she has captured the bravery in the women’s faces and their eyes, “so that people feel connected to them”.
