64-Year-Old Dad of Five Graduates as a Nurse Alongside His Son
Most college graduates are in their early twenties. John Adesoye just crossed the stage at 64, and his path there is the kind of story that makes you want to root for someone you've never met.
Adesoye completed a nurse degree apprenticeship at the University of the West of England (UWE) in Bristol, celebrating his graduation on July 15. It's the finish line of a career reinvention that started with electronics and ended, decades later, in scrubs.
From Fixing Radios To Caring For Patients
Adesoye grew up in Nigeria, where a childhood fascination with radios turned into a career as an electronics technician — first in Greece, then eventually in the U.K. For years, his job was bringing broken devices back to life. He's since found the same satisfaction in a completely different field: helping people heal.
The shift began in 2013, when he took a job as a healthcare assistant at Bristol's Southmead Hospital. From there, he worked his way up — completing a nursing associate course, then the nurse degree apprenticeship that just made him a fully registered nurse. Along the way, he rotated through some of the hospital's toughest departments, including the emergency room, cardiology, orthopedics, and intensive care.
A Father-Son Campus Story
Here's the detail that makes this graduation especially sweet: Adesoye wasn't the only one in his family hitting the books. His son, Daniel, was studying creative music technology at the same university at the same time. While Daniel pursued music, Adesoye split his weeks between one day of coursework and the rest training on the hospital floor.
His course leaders, Jacqui Caskey and Caroline Bromwich, praised his dedication, noting that nursing apprentices take on a genuinely demanding load — balancing full-time study with actual clinical work, plus everything else life throws at them, from family responsibilities to caregiving duties of their own.
What's Next
Adesoye has already secured a nursing position at Southmead, and he isn't ruling out going even further — a master's degree could be in his future.
For anyone else wondering if it's too late to start over, Adesoye's answer is simple: it isn't. He's encouraged other adults considering a return to education not to let age hold them back, insisting that people tend to underestimate both their own brilliance and their own resilience.
Looking back, he admits university was never part of the plan growing up. But curiosity followed him his whole life, and when the opportunity finally arrived, he says he didn't take it for granted — he chased it wholeheartedly.
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