A travelling fellowship was awarded to a Cardiff University School of Medicine student at the Welsh Urology Conference in Llandrindod Wells in late January. Mohamad Namzi Nordin will be spending his elective period (mid February to mid March) at the Macquarie University Hospital in Sydney, Australia thanks to the Ray Murray Travelling Fellowship. He will be doing a urological surgery placement there under the supervision of Professor David Gillatt, one of the world’s foremost robotic surgeons in the treatment of prostate and bladder cancers.
Mohamad aims to develop his understanding of prostate cancer, learn more about robotic surgery and compare the health care provision in Australia to the system in the United Kingdom. His elective will further his interest in urology, a speciality he is considering for his future career. Mohamad has previously run a clinical audit for a university project looking at the oncological outcomes of Robotic Assisted Laparoscopic Prostatectomy at the University Hospital of Wales, Cardiff under the supervision of Professor Howard Kynaston and Mr Krishna Narahari, surgeons whose robotic training was funded by Prostate Cymru.
Prostate Cymru introduced travelling fellowships in late 2016 to help medical students specialising in urology to fund their elective studies. An elective is a placement in which the student chooses the content and setting of their studies. The Ray Murray and Ray Williams travelling fellowships were created to support students from Cardiff University and Swansea University respectively. The fellowships are named in memory of Ray Murray, the founder of Prostate Cymru and Ray Williams OBE, the founding Chairman of the Pembrokeshire Friends of Prostate Cymru. The charity has also introduced travelling fellowships for Welsh medical students studying outside of Wales. For further information and application forms for 2019 travelling fellowships, students can contact the Prostate Cymru office directly.
The travelling fellowship awarded to Cardiff University students such as Mohamad are named in memory of Ray Murray. Ray founded the charity, then known as GLAZE, in the Vale of Glamorgan in 2003 with Chairman Andy Thomas and founder trustee Lyn Murray. Originally focussing on benign prostate disease, the charity became Prostate Cymru in 2010 and encompasses all prostate issues including prostate cancer, the most common cancer diagnosed in men in Wales.
Lyn Murray, trustee of Prostate Cymru, said; “We, the Murray family, are very proud to be supporting students such as Mohamad through the Ray Murray travelling fellowship. The travelling fellowship is a great opportunity to develop the next generation of urologists and our family are delighted to be involved.”