Nicola Crolla (Lower Sixth)

On Tuesday 24th April, Lower Sixth students Nicola Crolla and Milly Hoar took part in a debate at Bedford School about whether the NHS should fund treatment of smokers. Nicola summarises the debate below:

"On Tuesday last week, Mrs Jenkin accompanied Milly Hoar and myself visited Bedford School for a heated debate. The motion was: 'This house believes the NHS should not fund treatment for smokers', we were arguing for the motion.

Milly opened the debate with a strong, thoroughly researched argument for not funding treatment and after the response from the Bedford School students we were definitely in a stronger position.

I built on this by replying with evidence to discredit the boys arguments for treatment.  In a room full of just Bedford School students and some staff members the questions were unsurprisingly in favour of the boys when the debate was opened to the floor. At times their carefully worded questions made it hard for us to defend our position. I believe this challenge bought out the best in Milly and myself and we were delighted when we won!

As we are aspiring medics, the debate gave us an opportunity to find out more about the NHS and the problems they face."