How One Student Helped Medical Research and Made Enough Money to Pay Off Her Car

Elmarie paid off her car and two holidays by helping cure deafness, wbu?

This post is presented in partnership with Linear Clinical Research.

After moving out of home, cash-strapped 18-year-old student Elmarie Visagie found herself "living week to week".

While earning her diploma in Business and Commerce at Curtin College, she was simultaneously pulling shifts as a waitress at the University of Western Australia,

Understandably, she began looking for a way to make "some extra cash".

"I haven’t been travelling, and it was something I was looking to save towards," she recalled to Student Edge.

Not only did she find a surprising side-hustle that helped cover two holidays and pay off her car, it did some social good and inspired a career pathway change.

And all it took was spending three nights in hospital.

(Pictured: Elmarie and her car.)

Here’s how she did it.

Elmarie followed in the footsteps of her boyfriend, Suni, volunteering for some medical trials at Linear Clinical Research in WA, as he had done previously.

"I kind of went in there just for the money," she admits.

"It was cool to help research, but I didn’t really think I’d get that much out of it."

But 'much' is exactly what she got. Firstly, there was the satisfaction in furthering medical research for a good cause (in the case of her first study, to help find a cure for hearing loss in children undergoing chemotherapy). Secondly, there was the $1,000 she received for participating. And thirdly, it was a glimpse at a better, more rewarding future in science and medicine.

"[While studying] I was thinking about how your job is something you have to come to everyday," she explains.

"When I came to the clinic, everyone was really friendly there; all the co-workers have a good relationship with each other.

"After that week, I was like, 'This is something I think I’d love to do.'"

She switched over to Health Science and got her diploma at the end of 2018. Elmarie is now moving onto Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at Curtin University.

"It would be cool to work towards working in one of the labs at Linear," she even says.

(Pictured: Elmarie and a doctor at Linear.)

Here’s how the Linear trials work.

"On [Linear’s] website they list quite a few different types of trials", Elmarie explains.

"You can type in your details and say your height and your weight and if you have any allergies, and it gives you specific trials that are running just for your category.

"I looked at how many days the trial is, how long you’d be in hospital for, so I can give notice to work, or to make sure I can do my studies there. It was quite good; I could do my studies there all the time."

She spent the rest of the trial watching movies, playing poker and enjoying meals catered to her dietary requirements, including "the best vegan meals I’ve tasted".

Elmarie’s first trial at Linear lasted less than a week: three nights in hospital. She’s done two further trials since then, but she understands why people may be apprehensive about participating.

"Anything you do take, it is helping medical research, but there could be side effects," she acknowledges. In fact, that’s pretty much the point: "[they’re checking for] nausea, headaches, so they can put that on the labels."

Thankfully, Linear's experienced and qualified doctors are very transparent about any potential side effects, and participants get a free health check and consultation so they can ask any questions beforehand. Plus, participants get to choose which trial they get involved in, and can pull out at any time, so there's no obligations at all.

"They’ve kept quite a few studies open for ages to find candidates; for months and months, trying to find people," Elmarie says.

"There’s a lot of people out there who are able to do it, but they don’t know about it."

Ultimately, however, Elmarie says that participating "feels kind of good", especially because you’re "able to help other people out."

The other benefits are undeniable, including that holiday she was saving for.

"I have been looking at going to Egypt," she says.

"Friends and I are thinking about travelling, so we’ve set that for the end of 2019. But because I was able to do so many trials, halfway through the year I’m going to go to Sri Lanka with my boyfriend, which is where he’s from, and get to see his home country a little bit."

Interested in some extra cash? Linear Clinical Research is a non-profit organisation at QEII Medical Centre and is owned by WA’s premier medical research institute. All trials at Linear are approved by a federal government approved independent ethics committee. If you would like to help them out and get paid up to thousands of dollars then click here to apply. In addition to generous payments, participants can also get free medical checks, free Wi-Fi and free food.

Header Image: Supplied