Darsheka Wanithasan has always been passionate about promoting public health and wellness, especially by emphasising on healthy eating and living. For her, food is a basic necessity of our lives and we can never live without it! It is therefore incredibly fulfilling for her to directly or indirectly help people achieve their goals and inspire them to take control of their health by eating right and staying fit. This passion has resulted in her enrolment into the IMU Nutrition programme in 2014. She has since graduated with a Bachelor of Science (Hons) Nutrition (IMU) in 2017.
Darsheka explains about her current employment at a healthcare communications consultancy that specialises in advancing public health goals, “Here, I have the pleasure to work with some of the country’s leading healthcare experts, professional bodies and government authorities in developing healthcare and community campaigns. Besides that, I also have the opportunity to support companies in meeting their corporate and brand marketing objectives in the healthcare world.”
“My job today requires me to work behind the scenes most of the time, and being in it has made me realise that there’s a lot that goes on behind the scenes before a campaign is set forward to the public. These include a lot of planning, strategy formulation, research, content development and much more.” 
In the past year, Darsheka have had the opportunity to work on some interesting campaigns, one of the significant ones being the launch of FATCHECK “6 Secrets For A Healthy Heart”. The campaign was a collaboration between the National Heart Institute (NHI) and Philips Malaysia with the aim of educating the public about the holistic approach (6 Secrets) to help prevent heart diseases. The campaign was also aimed at increasing awareness in heart disease and encouraging the public to take personal responsibility to lead heart-healthy lives by advocating healthy eating and low-fat cooking such as air-frying foods. “I am extremely happy to share that the FATCHECK “6 Secrets For A Healthy Heart” campaign did well and received good feedback from the public on social media. We also gained about 8 press coverages and 11 coverages online.” This year, Darsheka is working in the area of childcare under the IMFeD campaign. The campaign highlights the importance of childhood feeding, nutrition and growth. The campaign is in collaboration between the Malaysian Paediatric Association (MPA) and Abbott Malaysia. She is looking forward to the campaign’s kickoff in April and is hoping that it will achieve great success.
“I am truly thankful that I chose to be part of the nutrition field. I aim to further expand my knowledge and outlook with all the experience that I have gained and will be gaining in time to come. I believe that with the efforts that have been put into the campaigns that I have been able to be part of, we will be able to build and sustain a healthier community together!”
