Mr Paul Thiruchelvam 2022-11-28 Person 5 5 0

It's taken me a while to write this review because I've found it difficult to put into words what Mr. Paul Thiruchelvam and his team at King Edward VII Hospital have done for me... and as a professional writer, that's tough to admit! A few months ago, I found a lump in my breast and asked my GP for a referral to a breast specialist. It turned out that the lump was just a cyst, but in the course of the investigation, another smaller cancer was discovered. Given its size and depth, it's unlikely I would have found the tumour on my own for some time; and the NHS wouldn't otherwise have caught it so early, as I don't yet qualify for routine mammograms. In the moment of diagnosis, I felt like the luckiest of unlucky people. I plodded along through the NHS system, but was concerned that things were being missed at my local hospital. I spent a lot of time poring over medical journals to be sure I was asking the right questions. That's when I decided to go to London for a second opinion from Mr. Thiruchelvam. Within minutes of meeting him, I knew he was the right surgeon for me. Although I had been diagnosed weeks earlier, he was the first person to explain in detail the characteristics of my breast cancer, and the treatment options available to me. I felt intense relief as I knew that whatever the future held, I'd be in excellent hands. I ended up having a lumpectomy, in addition to a mammoplasty (breast reduction and lift) on the non-cancerous side. The results are extraordinary. Mr. Thiruchelvam is both a surgeon and an artist. My margins were clean, and my lymph nodes are clear of cancer. I also look great. This may seem like an inconsequential concern when one is battling something as grave as cancer, but it is an important consideration, as the patient must live happily in their body after treatment is over. I am grateful that Mr. Thiruchelvam pays as much attention to aesthetics as he does to the surgical treatment of cancer. Like any practitioner, Mr. Thiruchelvam is only as good as the team around him. With this in mind, I'd like to mention his anaesthetist, Dr. Massimiliano Guglielmi, and the pain consultant, Dr. Matt Brown--both of whom ensured my surgery was as easy and painless as possible. Also, Mr. Thiruchelvam's two nurses, Ms. Helen Froyd and Ms. Amelia Cook, checked up on me constantly and took time to answer all my questions. And the radiologist Dr. Neil Upadhyay and his assistants, Fiona and Sara, helped compassionately with the mammograms and multiple biopsies, and always kept me chatting and laughing through what would otherwise have been a very scary experience. Last, but not least, I'd like to thank Mr. Thiruchelvam's PA, Ms. Michelle Wright, who shoehorned me into a complicated schedule and kept everything running smoothly and on time. I cannot recommend Mr. Thiruchelvam and his team enough to anyone who finds themselves an unwilling member of the "breast cancer club."