She's very fit. Her limbs swing loosely as she strides down the corridor, somewhere inside the maze that is St James's Hospital in Dublin. She's on her way from the physiotherapy department to one of the second floor wards to see a patient.

"It's a very physical job, it's very demanding," says Caitriona Healy, as she flies along, turning a corner. In a flash she's up a flight of stairs.

"You do a lot of lifting - hoisting patients who are a dead weight. You're walking patients between two and three people, a lot would be heavy. But in college they train you with weight-lifting techniques."

All day, she's back and forth, going between the ward and the physiotherapy department. "Yes, there's a lot of walking," she says, with a happy smile, her cheeks glowing after her brisk trek.

Once on the ward, Healy slows down to explain that for her patients' "motivation is a big factor in people getting better. They get quite depressed from being immobile. You try and understand so that you become their friend. You build up very good relationships with your patients."

The physiotherapist's job is about "being able to relate to people". When she was studying at UCD, a girl left the course because, she recalls, "she couldn't cope with touching people at all . . . you have to be able to do that, be able to put your hands on someone you've never met before."

Her four years at UCD were busy and energetic and there was no shortage of exercise. From second year, "there was a lot of travelling around, cycling from Earlsfort Terrace, to the Mater and back again". She and her classmates, which included 32 women and five men, were often to be seen travelling in single file, white coats flying, between the two centres, rushing for lectures or dashing back to the library.

"It's quite a demanding course, 30 hours a week between lectures and practicals." Students must complete 1,000 hours of clinical work over the four-year period. "You can't get your qualification unless you have it."

"You really get to know your patients and you get to see them from being very poor and not being able to sit on their own to being able to walk, stand up. It's very rewarding." Healy is brisk as she sets up a tilt bed. She recalls her first day on the job as a student. "It was very frightening. The first day was terrifying. You were there under a tutor but it was about being excited and het up about it. All the experiences coming together. But all those are little things. I had a stroke patient in her Sixties. She was great."

She cautions those who might be thinking about this course: "In a way, it's quite academic. Some of the subjects would be difficult. Physiology would be tough." She went to UCD because she had only one science subject, so TCD was not an option.

Half way through Leaving Cert at St Mac Dara's Community College, in Templeogue, Dublin, Healy decided to switch her career choice. Instead of hotel and catering, she decided to go for physiotherapy, largely, she says, because of her experience in the Order of Malta. "It was helpful. You have to be trained in first aid and I knew a lot of anatomy when I went into physiotherapy." Her attendance with the Order of Malta at matches, concerts and openings, gave her some insight into the area.

"I always had an interest in the medical line," she says. "Maybe I get that from my mother. She always wanted to do medicine but she was the eldest of eleven kids and she became a teacher. Both my parents are teachers."

Her own career choice? "I've never regretted it. I'm delighted. I've never looked back. I was delighted from day one."