If I could sit down with my younger self in 2001, starting as a locum staff grade doctor in HDU, I know exactly what I would say.

First, I would tell her to stop apologising for taking a different path.

You will spend far too much time explaining yourself to others, and sometimes even to yourself. You will wonder whether choosing a career outside the traditional consultant training route makes you somehow ‘less than’. You will occasionally make yourself smaller to fit other people's expectations.

Don't.

Your career will not follow the path that others expect, but it will become exactly the career you were meant to have.

25 years later, you will be an associate specialist in intensive care helping patients through some of the most challenging periods of their lives. You will become a recognised voice for SAS doctors locally and nationally. Not despite being SAS, but because you chose to embrace being SAS.

The second thing I would tell her is this: expertise matters more than titles.

You will develop specialist interests in tracheostomy care, spinal cord injury, difficult weaning and ICU rehabilitation. You will chair your hospital's tracheostomy MDT and work alongside outstanding multidisciplinary teams. Patients, families and colleagues will seek your advice because of your knowledge, experience and leadership.

No one will ask who had the most conventional career path.

They ask who can help.

The answer, time and again, will be you.

I would also tell her not to underestimate the value of staying where you can make a difference.

There is often a perception in medicine that success only means moving on, moving up or moving elsewhere. Yet some of the most meaningful contributions come from putting down roots, building relationships and becoming a source of stability for patients and colleagues.

The years you spend developing services, mentoring others and advocating for patients will matter. The impact will be real, even when it is not always visible.

Most importantly, I would tell her to use her voice.

There will be times when speaking up feels uncomfortable. There will be occasions when you walk into rooms where you feel you do not belong. There will be moments when you wonder whether your views carry the same weight as someone with a different title.

Speak anyway.

That willingness to speak up will eventually lead to leadership roles within the BMA and NISASC. You will spend six years serving as NISASC chair, representing SAS doctors across Northern Ireland and

ensuring their voices are heard. You will discover that leadership is not about having all the answers. It is about listening, advocating and creating opportunities for others.

And I would remind her that she doesn't have to do it all alone

Medicine can sometimes make us believe that resilience means carrying every burden ourselves. In reality, resilience comes from the people around us: colleagues, friends, mentors and family who encourage us when we doubt ourselves and celebrate our successes when we forget to.

Finally, I would tell my younger self to be proud.

Proud of choosing a path that worked for her.

Proud of building a career around patients, expertise and service.

Proud of being an SAS doctor.

Because the truth is that the SAS route is not a second choice. For many of us, it is the right choice.

A career can be successful without looking conventional. It can be fulfilling without following someone else's map. It can be influential without fitting neatly into traditional definitions of progression.

So to my younger self, and to every SAS doctor reading this:

Do not make yourself smaller.

Do not apologise for taking a different route.

Your contribution matters.

And be proud to say: SAS by choice.

Leanne Davison is an associate specialist in intensive care in Northern Ireland.