Concordia

Concordia Winter 2023

16

A Life in Medicine

Veeru Kasivisvanathan (1996-2003) is an internationally renowned Urological Surgeon. He is an Associate Professor of Urology at University College London and Consultant Urological Surgeon at University College London Hospital. He performs surgery using a robot and runs clinical trials evaluating novel forms of treatment for patients with prostate, bladder and kidney cancers.

Memories from MTS Some days one never forgets; one of those was my first day at the school, entering by the Head Master’s entrance and not being sure how to get to the History block to my form 3T. The school seemed so big and daunting to an eleven-year old from a small state primary school. Another thing that seems to stick in my mind were the end of year assemblies in the Great Hall, singing “Homo plantat, homo irrigat […]”. There was a sense of communal pride at having completed the challenges of the year together and being ready to move forward to the next phase. Having recently enjoyed a nostalgic return to the school for our 20-year reunion, we relived a number of memories that haven’t changed a bit since we left: the smell of the Great Hall, the phosphorus smell in the Chemistry block, those wooden classroom doors in the maths block and the Beast, which seemed to have aged far better than we had.

Who inspired you the most at MTS? There were probably two teachers who inspired me, one of whom was Mr Brown, our English teacher. I very much enjoyed reading through texts like Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde and The Crucible . To my surprise, he gave me the James Graves prize for English Literature. I think it was the first time I’d ever won a prize. His belief in me made me believe in myself and was important in giving me further drive to succeed. Secondly, Mr Richards, our Biology teacher. I remember his teaching and character vividly. When he spoke, you listened, while scrambling to write down his booming words in the blue Biology A4 hardback books we used. To this day, I still haven’t forgotten: “Osmosis: the movement of water from high water potential to low, through a semi-permeable membrane…”. He had a big role in my interest in Medicine. What did you do after MTS? I studied Medicine at Imperial College London, then started working as a junior doctor at