As part of our Dietitian Week celebrations, student members have been writing letters to their future selves, sharing their predictions and hopes for the coming years. We received some wonderful entries and our Student Representative, April Aslett, had the difficult job of judging these and selecting a winner.
We're delighted to announce that the winner of our student competition is Muhammad Hadi Shafiq Bin Kasmad! Check out his letter below:
Dear future self,
It’s Dietitians Week 2025, and I’m sitting here as a student dietitian at the University of Hull, halfway between who I was and who I hope to become.
Today, I write to you not just as a student, but as the child I once was, the seven-year-old boy from Singapore who carried more than just excess weight, he carried shame, isolation, and self-doubt.
But that little boy didn’t give up. He listened, learned, and slowly began to heal, not just physically, but emotionally.
And that healing became a mission.
I wonder where you are now, eleven years later in 2036. I hope you’ve become the kind of dietitian who leads with heart as much as with science. The kind of dietitian who sees the person with empathy before the patient. The kind who brings warmth to sterile hospital rooms and hope to weary eyes.
I hope you found your place in oncology, the field that drew you in with its quiet urgency and profound humanity.
Watching patients grapple with the unimaginable fighting for dignity, strength, and one more day made you realise that nutrition, in those moments, isn’t just about sustaining life. It’s about restoring control, honouring joy, and preserving identity.
I hope you've become the kind of oncology dietitian who helps someone savour their favourite food again after months and years of never ending battle. Who helps a family understand that a meal can be comfort, even when healing is no longer the goal. That you sit beside patients during some of their darkest moments and offer not just advice but presence.
I hope you never lose the emotional heartbeat of this work.
Have you returned to Singapore? Maybe you’re bridging East and West blending evidence-based practice with the flavours and traditions of home. Or maybe you’re still in the UK, contributing to research, mentoring the next wave of student dietitians, and working towards greater equity in cancer care. Perhaps you've even started a community initiative or published work on the intersection of culture and oncology nutrition.
And what about the profession? I imagine dietetics in 2036 is more diverse, more inclusive, and more valued than ever. I hope that nutritional interventions are better integrated into healthcare, and that culturally competent care is the norm, not the exception. Maybe AI and tech have evolved, but our role towards the human connection remains irreplaceable.
But wherever you are, I hope you’re still driven by the same fire that lit up inside you when you took control of your own health. I hope you’ve stayed grounded in your why.
And I hope you've learned that success isn’t just in job titles, published papers, or letters after your name. It’s in the patient who remembers your kindness. The student who says you inspired them. The mother who says her son smiled for the first time in weeks because he could eat again.
Keep being brave. Keep being human. Keep showing up.
With all my heart,
Hadi, 2025