FOLK TALES with Colin Lambert
DR. CHARLIE MIDDLE
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id you know that November is prostate awareness month? As I pee quite a bit during the night – we’re talking three or four times, even without alcohol – I decided it was time for another visit to my doctor. Bute House Surgery: 17 staff, 3.5 partners. (What does half a partner look like, I wonder?) The doors open automatically. I tap my name into a computer screen and it tells me to sit down. To my left is a bookcase with leaflets: living with terminal illness; get closer to your dream of having a baby; something about the effects of asbestos (did you know one of the early cigarette filters was made of asbestos?). And then, “If you notice blood in your pee, even if it is ‘just the once’, tell your doctor”. Well that did happen to me once and I did tell my doctor. A speaker bellows out, “Colin Lambert, Dr Middle will see you now.” I walk in. Dr Middle is slight, yet athletic, and smartly dressed. He beckons me to have a seat. “Dr, I seem to be peeing a lot in the night.” He looks at me, smiles and says, “Call me Charlie.” We discuss Movember, the annual trend of growing a moustache through the month of November in order to raise awareness of men’s health – particularly prostate cancer. After some reassurance regarding my nocturnal toilet trips, I change the subject. “Did you always want to be a doctor?” I ask. “My dad was a GP and my mum was a venereologist, 90 | Sherborne Times | November 2016
so it ran in the family.” Born in Buckinghamshire, Charlie went to boarding school aged eight and eventually won a scholarship to Cheltenham College. Here, his passions were rugby (a flying wing), cricket (batsman) and hockey (wing again). He arrived at Guy’s and St Thomas’ London in 1984 alongside 90 other undergraduate doctors. The medical school philosophy was, ‘work hard, play hard,’ so hockey, cricket and London life took their place alongside his medical training. He moved to his new London digs in Brixton just as the riots of 1985 erupted. Charlie was learning life in London at the sharp end. A junior doctor’s day often meant an 8am Friday start and an 8pm Monday finish. Sport was left behind, yet Charlie speaks fondly of the teamwork and camaraderie that surrounded the teaching hospitals. By this time known as Dr Middle, he decided to do a year of post-graduate training in sports medicine at the London Hospital, Whitechapel. His love of sport dates back many years – to watching the 1974 cup final between Liverpool and Newcastle with his dad, in fact. Liverpool won, his dad was ecstatic and Charlie has been a Liverpool supporter ever since. His is a very sporty family with tennis, hockey, cricket and tobogganing (something about the Cresta Run) all regular fixtures in entertaining his wife, two daughters and son. “Breakfast?” I enquire. “I often cook bacon and eggs for the family before