Woman of passion: The singing doctor

Saying that Joanne Medina wears many caps would be an understatement. Her story is a tale of trial and error, a journey that has ultimately moulded her into a medical practitioner, while at the same time carving her passion for the arts. Apart from being a doctor, she is also a businesswoman, an interior designer, and a gospel musician.

Joanne's early life started in Stage Choma, a little-known village in Kitale, Trans-Nzoia County, infamously known for burning suspected thieves by mob justice at the bus stage.

"I remember we walked for about 26km to school and back," Joanne narrates about her start in the early 2000s.

After some time, the family joined their father who was already working in Nairobi, after her mother, a primary school teacher, got an offer to work at an international school in the city.

"Our first house in Nairobi was a bedsitter in Ngara. We squeezed in all eight of us, plus an uncle or two," Joanne offers.

Luck, however, smiled her way when her mother started working as a teacher in Rusinga School. At the international school, her mother was allowed to have three children enrolled at a discount. She chose the last three (from five) and Medina was among them.

At Rusinga, Medina's classmates were the children of the rich and famous. "We played an assortment of games and I was good at hockey. We even had art and music classes," she says.

When she was in year 7, and aged 13, her mother left Rusinga School, and that meant the discount she enjoyed was rescinded. That was when Joanne found herself back in a public school.

"The exams became harder and the meals were no longer the five star-hotel-like ones at Rusinga," Joanne who went back to the 8-4-4 system while in class seven, says.

While she struggled to fit in, her strict teachers ensured she caught on soon after. She began finding her passion in music.

"My best friend and I made music on the recorder and played the national anthem while hoisting the flag."

Joanne then sat for her KCPE exams in 2005, passed, and joined Pangani Girls School.

Her love for music never dimmed, and together with her friends they even formed a singing group. "The group was named LG7, that is, Let God Perfect, and we would practice every Saturday. We would also write songs which we performed in school events," she adds.

Her journey to becoming a doctor was by sheer coincidence. She had read a magazine article on the disease Elephantiasis, and then their biology teacher happened to teach on the very subject and set an exam on the ailment.

"I answered the question perfectly and my friends were impressed. They told me 'You are going to be a doctor,'" Joanne says.

Straight As

She sat for her KCSE in 2009 and scored straight As. Still, she was unsure of what she wanted to study at university.

"I loved music and teaching, but I also had loved biology and I was curious about the human body," she says. Finally, she chose to study medicine at Egerton University in the year 2011.

In the six years at Med school, Joanne was a jack of all trades. From doing art-related activities, cooking, making and selling handmade pouches, interior design, to making music all while studying, she did it all.

"I recorded some music in my fourth and fifth year of study. I still have those pieces," she says.

For skills in interior design, she enrolled in night online classes. At the same time, she learnt how to make bags after buying sewing machines from her savings.

"I made and sold bags for two years – travel bags, guitar bags, backpacks, and handbags," she says.

By her final year, she was making surgical caps. "It started when a nurse declined to give surgical caps to students because we were "wasting resources". That night I stitched a fabric cap for myself. Later I got inquiries so I sold and made deliveries to my friends and many doctors outside my town," she says.

After graduating in 2018, with a Bachelor of Science degree in Medicine, today Joanne works as a Medical Officer (General Practitioner) with AAR Healthcare, where she has been practicing for three years.

She is still juggling her various talents.

Music journey

So far she has produced seven gospel songs, which she publicizes through her YouTube, Joanne Medina, while the other three are due for release in March and April.

"The gospel songs are Unaweza, Change a World, Love Yourself, Thirsty Fish, Tabasamu, Trustworthy, and Nikumbushe," says Joanne whose songs have garnered more than 80,000 views.

She is also keen on becoming a businesswoman and through her companies Scrubs Kenya and Dandelion she sells medical uniforms and equipment. 

As for her interior design passion, Joanne says, "Currently, I design for friends and myself and not for money."

So how does she juggle it all? "I simply schedule with my music producer and video director to have appointments, studio sessions, and video shoots on my off days."

Her family has supported and encouraged her music passion, but she admits that sometimes they worry, she may divert from Medicine. 

In the future, she sees herself probably becoming a lecturer specializing in paediatrics or internal medicine and longs to be an acclaimed gospel musician.

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