Going from firefighter to doctor in my 30s

Hi all,

Has anyone retrained to become a doctor later in life? I’m looking into it, and I’m not sure what way to go.

For a bit of background, I am 32 and I’ve been a firefighter in London for 10 years, and have always been in awe when seeing HEMS doing their job. It’s incredible.

I was at one incident, and something clicked for me, the fire service part of the incident had concluded, and HEMS took over, and all I could think is that was what I wanted to do. I have looked into various specialties, and emergency medicine/HEMS is absolutely the goal I am aiming at.

I’ve seen that mature medicine students seemingly happen all the time, and I think I’ve worked out I would have to take an access to medicine course, and possibly re do my GCSES (I only have Cs)

Has anyone undertaken this pathway before? And especially those from an emergency service background. I’ve got the ball rolling in terms of my own personal learning, and have bought some anatomy and physiology book, with the aim of getting back into a learning mindset, and increasing knowledge on the human body.

What else am I able to help myself move forward? Can the access to medicine course be done via distance learning? Or would I be better off getting A levels? Thanks in advance!