When someone suggested to Tanika Ridgeway that she should enrol in a medicine degree, it sparked a realisation for the proud Worimi woman.
Fast-forward to today and the 32-year-old has just passed her second year of studying to become a doctor.
She will graduate from Yapug on Tuesday - a University of Newcastle pathway program for Indigenous students that Ms Ridgeway says is designed to "empower you to be whatever you want to be" - as part of the uni's December graduating cohort.
Ms Ridgeway had spent almost a decade in a customer service role at John Hunter Hospital's pathology department before she decided it was time for a change.
She began a teaching degree, but it wasn't for her - and then a mentor from the Wollotuka Institute suggested she try medicine.
"It was a huge realisation for me, that it was something that was actually possible, that Newcastle uni had graduated the most Indigenous doctors at the time, so I felt really supported - the people before me had paved that way," Ms Ridgeway said.
"We talk about closing the gap, I want to be able to see change. Had I not done Yapug, maybe I wouldn't have gone on this journey. I just want everybody to know that there's so many opportunities out there for them to do whatever they want to do."
