Ambling along a New York street, a poster grabbed me by the throat. A young woman with a mastectomy scar and pregnant.* “Breast cancer is not a pink ribbon,” it said. And, of course, they are right. But, the stark realism jarred. Breast cancer charities have been very successful with their society balls, pink ribbon […]
Category: Domhnall MacAuley
Domhnall MacAuley on rowing glory and cruel irony
They asked me to go on the radio. Andy Holmes, double Olympic gold medallist rower had just died of Leptospirosis. After a long break away from the sport, he returned two years ago and, it seems, he caught the disease through his renewed contact with the sport. It is relatively rare, with just 40 cases per annum in the UK, […]
Domhnall MacAuley: Sports medicine awards and research opportunity
The Lord Speaker’s chambers at the House of Lords seemed an appropriate setting for the presentation of the Duke of Edinburgh prize for sport and exercise medicine. And, it seems, it would have taken place at Buckingham Palace had Prince Phillip not had a prior engagement. Among those honoured were the legendary Swedish orthopaedic surgeons […]
Domhnall MacAuley: Charge the sick
Why not charge people for being ill? A satirical letter in the Irish Times, recommended a monthly levy on illness. Declan Moriarty suggested a sliding scale so that MS sufferers could be levied €10 per month, Parkinson’s €9, Motor Neuron €8, Friedreich’s Ataxia €7, Arthritis €6, and a levy on every other illness of €5. […]
Domhnall MacAuley: RCGP Annual Primary Care Conference 2010
Leadership. Today’s trendy word, endlessly abused, was back on stage at the 4th RCGP annual meeting in Harrogate. Tanni Grey-Thompson multiple Paralympic gold medallist told us of the pain and pleasure of achievement at the highest level, the grind of training, the setbacks, the importance of goal setting, the ecstasy of winning and the glory of victory. Both […]
Domhnall MacAuley on Sailing to Byzantium
Yeats’s poem (Sailing to Byzantium), written as he approached old age, looked to the wonders of Byzantium, and its immortal beauty. I would never have dreamt, sitting in that classroom long ago, that I would one day visit its modern day incarnation as Istanbul. (Even less that I would grow older too.) Visiting Istanbul, for […]
Domhnall Macauley: What is the BMJ?
What is the BMJ? When I ask people at outreach lectures and seminars, I get various answers ranging from the traditionalists who see still the BMJ as just another paper journal in their Friday morning letterbox, to others for whom it is multimedia medical communications opportunity. For one clinician lecturer, we are a podcast that […]
Domhnall Macauley on a postgraduate study day at Trinity College, Dublin
Bright eyed students wandered though the ancient cobbled courtyards of Trinity in the September sunshine- bursting with anticipation of the new term. “On Raglan Road on an Autumn Day….” The poet Patrick Kavanagh’s words came to mind- an echo of timeless repetition. In contrast, we headed off to the PhD and MD students of the […]
Domhnall MacAuley: shadows in sports medicine
Sport is seductive. Its exciting, thrilling, and emotional. Watching a sport you enjoy, it is hard not to become drawn into the drama. As a doctor involved with the players, it is difficult to remain dispassionate. When Wendy Chapman sat before the GMC, with events drawn out by counsel, the scene was very different to […]
Domhnall MacAuley on the “back then” brigade
Reading the Times (Wed 11 August), it was clear I was mistaken in thinking they had gone away. The “back then” brigade are back; hankering over the good old days when doctors were trained properly. Not this namby pamby part time medicine where junior doctors clock off early. Not like in our day. […]