Mr Golash is a Consultant Urological Suregon and Clinical Lead for the Urology department at UHNM.

I always wanted to be a Surgeon as I enjoy doing things with my hands and find it satisfying to see instant results. My father was also a surgeon and this may also have had some influence as well. I went into urological surgery by accident really after I worked with a very good urologist as a junior doctor and was heavily influenced by him.

I have several memorable stories from my career but by far performing the world’s first day case laparoscopic kidney removal and being awarded “Citizen of the Year Award” for this achievement by Staffordshire County Council is the stand out memory for me.

I have a special interest in robotic and keyhole surgery of the kidney and adrenal gland and I am delighted that at UHNM we are able to use the latest robotic technology to benefit our patients

Without a doubt the most favourite thing about my job is the clinical work. I love the interaction with my patients, performing surgery and seeing them get better but unfortunately for every positive there is a downer and the least favourite thing is the need to keep fighting the system to help make improvements and invest in developments for the services we run.

One of the most humbling experiences I have ever had was from one of my cancer patients who kept smiling at me after he had received his diagnosis of cancer. I thought, he probably has not understood the diagnosis and hence I repeated the diagnosis again and he smiled again. When I asked him “are you not shocked”? His words – “Yes, I am. But what can you do? You can either laugh or cry – I choose to laugh”. He taught me a very important life lesson that day.