CONGRATS: NINETEEN-YEAR-OLD Quwayne Howell wants to become one of Jamaica's foremost facial plastic surgeons.

CONGRATS: NINETEEN-YEAR-OLD Quwayne Howell wants to become one of Jamaica's foremost facial plastic surgeons.

The young man, who hails from Allman Town in Kingston, wants to help people with defects or disfigurement to the face, resulting from birth or trauma, to live normal lives.

Quwayne studied hard in school, earning eight grade ones in the 2019 Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) examination in English language, biology, physics, chemistry, information technology, mathematics, add mathematics, and Spanish.

He also attained six Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examination (CAPE) passes in pure mathematics, communication studies, Caribbean studies, chemistry, physics, and biology.

These grades were more than good enough for him to get into the coveted Medical Science Faculty at The University of the West Indies (UWI), Mona.

But, the St George's College valedictorian hit a major hurdle in realising his dream, when, after doing the financial assessment at The UWI in August, he was told that despite having the required grades, he could not be accepted into the medical faculty due to financial challenges.

The medical programme at The UWI costs approximately $3 million per year, which his family could not afford.

“That was one of the saddest days of my life. My only dream was to become a plastic surgeon and I thought that my dream was over. My whole life was gearing up to this moment. I was feeling like a failure,” Quwayne relates to JIS News.