Julian Money-Kyrle - Retired Clinical Oncologist Consultant
Dr Julian Money-Kyrle - Retired Clinical Oncologist Consultant
Dr Julian Money-Kyrle first joined Royal Surrey in 1986 as a senior house officer and, after roles in a number of other hospitals, he returned as a cancer specialist in 2002. He stayed for 15 years until he retired as a Clinical Oncologist Consultant.
“How things have changed over the years. I recall looking out of the window during my ward rounds at some point during 1993 and seeing deer running across the field. I even had a patient who had been in the same ward during World War II who told me that he saw a fighter plane come down there.
“I clearly remember the official opening of St Luke’s at Royal Surrey by her Majesty the Queen and Prince Philip. I remember the security checks beforehand, and all the stickers that the police left on anywhere a bomb could be hidden to show that they had checked them – lavatory cisterns for example. I remember thinking that the Queen was shorter than I had imagined her.
“I still remember the first patient I treated in 1986 with chemotherapy at Royal Surrey. I was a young doctor with no oncology experience whatsoever. The oncologist phoned me from St Luke’s with the drugs and doses. I was expected to prescribe it, make up the vials of red powder on the ward and administer it myself. Things have changed a bit since then.
“Now the purpose-build St Luke’s Cancer Centre is a centre of excellence for various cancer treatments and research. I have experienced first-hand the high-quality care that patients get at St Luke’s after my emergency admission in 2016, when I was diagnosed with multiple myeloma.
“Undoubtedly, Royal Surrey is a special place and I haven’t experienced quite the same atmosphere in any other hospital. The best thing about my job was the people I worked with whose sense of humour and imaginative ways of treating patients pulled together to do the best for our patients.”