Christopher Lee is a recent graduate of Medicine, and an involved member of artsUCL.
At the heart of artsUCL, you’ll find Chris. Social Secretary of Musical Theatre Society, President of Live Music Society and training to become a Doctor, Chris has been living a dual life. He tells us how he found solace and relief within his artsUCL community as a medical student.
I’m Chris, and I started medicine at UCL in 2019. From the get-go, I knew I wanted to join a performing arts society, so I joined Musical Theatre. From then onwards, I tried a variety of different societies – from Live Music to Drama, Musical Theatre to Jazz.
It took me a while to get to know the ropes, but I got into a rhythm of studying and then spending my weekends at rehearsals. It was full on, but it was great – it was a de-stresser for me.
COVID years hit
And then, COVID hit in my second year. The pace was different, as well as the culture. Everything went online, including the social stuff. I was social sec for Musical Theatre, so it was hard when everything went on Zoom. It didn’t feel the same. Even when it changes to groups of six, it just wasn’t possible to do shows. It was hard to keep that sense of community or morale going. However, when things started getting back to normality again, and we could come back onto campus, we tried to reignite the culture and, with the help of the committee, built things back up from scratch. Not being able to perform to anyone and then putting together Rhapsody in person with a full crowd again - it was great.
Everyone was desperate to get out and do stuff again, it really felt like we were all a part of something big.
The latter years in my degree, I was able to get involved with more performative roles and take a small step backwards from leadership roles, purely as my degree became more demanding as I was starting my clinical years. I performed Rhapsody again in 2025, the same week as my medical finals. That was quite something!
Medicine and extra curriculars - it's possible
When I first started my artsUCL journey, there weren’t many medics. However, as time had gone on, I noticed a lot more medical students get more involved. I think people are started to see the benefits of having extracurricular activities outside of your studies, especially medical students, as they tend to stick with RUMS clubs. But it is possible to juggle both.
Without artsUCL, I would have struggled. Your degree is one thing, but I don’t think I would have enjoyed my time here at UCL nearly as much as I did, if it wasn’t for arts. It’s given me a wider outlook on life. It’s made me think, I have so many avenues I can explore for my career and maybe even look at creative fields in the future.