Press release posted 27 January 2026
Sam Birchall, the lead guitarist in indie band The Lilacs, is the first person in Europe to have a lymph node removal operation for testicular cancer that has spread and go home the same day.
Sam, who is from Wigan, was diagnosed last year when he was just 24. He had an operation at his local hospital to remove his testicle. Unfortunately, his scans revealed that the cancer had spread to some of his abdominal lymph nodes, so he had 3 cycles of chemotherapy at The Christie, which he finished in September last year.
After chemotherapy, further tests showed that some of the lymph nodes were still enlarged and that he needed an operation to remove them.
“My surgeon, Mr Aziz Gulamhusein, was very straight with me that my case was complicated, as some of the lymph nodes were pressing up against major blood vessels. It was scary, but I have always felt in very safe hands at The Christie, and this was no different.
“I had a robotic operation, which generally has a much shorter recovery time than open surgery, but I never expected to leave hospital the same day. The nurses were great in the recovery room, and by the time Aziz came to see me at the end of the day, I was feeling pretty good. It really couldn’t have gone any better.
“We had a chat about what was best, and I decided that I wanted to go home. Aziz told me that I was the first person, probably in the whole of Europe, to be able to do that. There was a bit of a buzz around it – you could really tell that the team cares about being the best at what they do and making sure that patients have the best recovery possible,” Sam says.
“To my knowledge, this is the first time that this has been done in Europe, which is just amazing,” says Mr Aziz Gulamhusein, Sam’s Consultant Urological Surgeon at The Christie.
“Our goal as surgeons is always to ensure a safe and effective cancer operation and, if possible, carry it out in the least invasive way possible. With the latest keyhole surgical technology and a real team effort we have got to a stage where patients are going home the same day and recovering in weeks.
"Not long ago, this operation would have required a large incision, a hospital stay of more than a week and months of recovery. It is fantastic for the patients and a more efficient use of NHS resources. I’m looking forward to Sam getting back to the band and excited to see where they go in the future,” he adds