In April 2020, the International School 2014 students of clinical medicine Mok Tsz Ngai, He Qiyu, as co-First author, and with the 14 MBBS class Soundarya Panneerselvam published their work "Open versus arthroscopic ankle arthrodesis. A systematic review and meta-analysis” on the well-known international orthopaedic Journal, BMC's Journal of Orthopaedic Surgery and Research.

The wind and rain are cast sword; my dream never stops.

In 2014, I was carrying a backpack and carrying a suitcase in my hand and set off alone. The "Next stop is Guangzhou East Station" train broadcast slowly sounded in the compartment. As a Hong Kong student, this is my first time stepping into the boundaries of Guangzhou.

In form three, I innocently told people that I wanted to be a doctor. But as time went by, I slowly forgot the seed in the depths of my heart. However, when the results of the high school diploma examination were announced, I applied to the Clinical Medicine at Jinan University in Guangzhou by chance. The forgotten in the depths of the heart that a doctor dream of the seed, then the moment germinated.

My time at Jinan University was far more astonishing than I had imagined. I saw different new things. I was the monitor and won the scholarship, and I laughed and cried. In my last year of college, I was even more excited to receive an email from the journal editor about the publication of my paper, as if I had caught the last train.

All this stemmed from a year ago, near the end of the university. He Qiyu and I were faced with doubts about the future and had many ideas, but I didn't know how to achieve it. We looked for our mentor, Dr Li Jieruo, and asked for advice. Dr Li was very enthusiastic and gave us a lot of practical suggestions and also provided a lot of resources.

Mok Tsz Ngai (left) and He Qiyu (right)

During the chat, we found that we are very interested in orthopaedics and sports medicine, so we hope to solve some clinical problems in this field. At the same time, Dr Pan Jinghua gave us a lot of research opinions and inspirations here.

In the field of sports, the most frequently injured joint is the ankle joint, because it bears most of the weight of the body, and more than 80% of ankle arthritis is formed after injured. However, the treatment of ankle arthritis has been controversial. Therefore, under the joint guidance of Dr. Li Jieruo and Dr. Pan Jinghua, we conducted research on different treatment methods for ankle arthritis. Then, after collecting all the data and the rich clinical experience of sports medicine provided by Brother Li Jieruo, we have obtained the advantages of arthroscopy in the treatment of ankle arthritis over other methods.

Flowering has never been simple. After spending some time to finally complete the article, I thought that success is coming, but the test has just begun. Facing the review process that the publishing house dragged on and off, our hearts became anxious, sending emails from time to time to understand the situation, and slowly began to wonder if we did not do well enough, but as experienced people, Dr. Pan and Dr. Li encouraged us not to give up.

Dr. Li Jieruo (middle)

On the road to growth, there is a lot of waiting. There will be a lot of questions, even doubt our ability and whether to go in the wrong direction. I remember Nick Vujicic saying, " When you are tempted to abandon your dreams, push yourself to continue one more day, one more week, one more month, and one more year. You will be amazed at what happens when you refuse to quit." I want to say: although the road ahead seems to be difficult, even if the wind and rain forge the sword, we also want to start not less, because success is not far ahead.

 By Mok Tsz Ngai, He Qiyu