TWINS Brianna La-Thaniel and Rianna La-Manda Capleton began their lifelong dream of studying medicine at The University of the West Indies ( The UWI), Mona this year, thanks to scholarships from National Baking Company Foundation.

In spite of inspiring passes at the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) and Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examination (CAPE) levels, the twins — both past students of Immaculate Conception High School — had to delay the start of their Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS) programmes for a year, given their inability to pay the tuition cost, which will total over $7 million in the end.

In lieu of medicine, they spent the last year pursuing biochemistry at The UWI, but innately knew that medicine is what they really wanted to pursue.

For 2025, when the National Baking Company Foundation — the outreach arm of National Bakery — opened the offering for students to apply, their mother Camille McKoy knew it was the most opportune time for the dream of her girls to be realised.

In the end, they were not only selected for full scholarships valued at $7,729,810, but also offered summer internships at the company’s head offices located at a section of Half-Way-Tree Road.

In a recent interview, the twins were overjoyed, knowing that they would be able to walk the halls for the accredited medical undergraduate programme which provides a broad education for the study of health and disease.

“Receiving this scholarship will allow us to complete medicine much quicker than having to wait. Last year we had to start a different programme before transferring over, because the funds were unrealistic,” Rianna said before her sister Brianna added, “Receiving a scholarship is something we are tremendously grateful for, because it allows us to study our programme a lot faster or at a predicted rate in comparison to having to wait.”

“We are really excited to start this new journey, because it’s something we initially planned on doing, and to get the money from National is really wonderful, because now we’re able to start that journey and build on the things we want to build on, and continue to build into becoming future doctors,” Rianna said.

Both believe they felt like becoming medical doctors from infancy. In support of this, their mother alluded to them wanting to wear Dora the Explorer scrubs every year to career day at One Way Prep School and Greater Portmore Primary School.

“I always knew that they had a passion to become doctors. For career day, we would ask them what they wanted to become, and that’s what they said for the last three years in the early childhood stage,” McKoy, who defines her girls as “bookworms, very humble, obedient, and different compared to the average girls whom they are related to”.

She added: “I know that they’re going to be stars, and the first two from my family who get to attend college, so mi know seh greatness was in a dem from dem small. They were never like the average kids who like to play. They were more into wanting me to buy medicine toys, needles and things that deal with medicine. In primary school, that’s the same thing they liked. In high school, they say the same things, so I said, ‘This is the dream that they will follow’.”

The twins said their dreams growing up were further fuelled from watching medical interactions through the media, with the cartoon Doc McStuffins and shows Chicago Med and Grey’s Anatomy.

The duo from Portmore, St Catherine, said when they were both awarded places at the top-performing school in the Corporate Area — Immaculate Conception High School — they confirmed that they were like-minded and destined for greatness.

As twins, they don’t have the same study pattern but study together and ask each other questions after their own rounds. For Rianna, she does “active recall” and takes to a wall with questions and answers as well.

The twin’s youngest sister, 12-year-old Julisa Savannah Capleton, is also following in the footsteps of her older sisters. At the start of this month, she also started attending Immaculate Conception, given her excellence scores obtained from sitting the Primary Exit Profile (PEP) examinations earlier this year.

After completing their MBBS, they intend to work at a local hospital and do a specialty in psychiatry, pathology or anaesthesiology.

National Baking Company Foundation twin scholars, Rianna (left) and Brianna Capleton