RORY BEATTIE

CLASS OF 2003

Consultant Thoracic Surgeon

Maths and science (and rugby) were always my main interests while at the High School. I’d thought I was probably going into engineering, but in Lower 6th it struck me that medicine was a bit like engineering but in people, and I reckoned it could be more interesting.

Lower and Upper 6th were definitely the highlights of my time at school. I loved the small classes for the sciences and maths and the teachers were fantastic (a big shout out to Mrs Clarke and Mrs Hood!). While you were really well prepared for each exam, they were also able to share their love of the subjects and stretched you well beyond the syllabus. 1st XV rugby gave a great balance to the school week and allowed me to develop friends I keep to this day.

In 2003, during my A-Levels, I applied to Downing College, Cambridge, to study medicine. The interview was exactly like sitting with Dr Gaston in our A-Level Chemistry class – I was asked to explain various chemical structures, draw them out, then bring the interviewer through the different stabilities of benzene versus benzane. Thankfully all went well!

Cambridge was a fantastic experience. While it was intimidating to be surrounded by so many from the English public school system, academically the High School had prepared me well and rugby allowed me to quickly find a good social scene. I finished my pre-clinical medicine studies in 2006 and moved to Guy’s, King’s and St Thomas’ in London for my clinical studies.

I graduated in 2009 and returned to Belfast to take up my junior doctor positions. I’d experienced thoracic surgery during my clinical elective. It involves operating on any of the organs in the chest, doing big operations involving major blood vessels, often on sick patients. I chased the thoracic surgery dream, and ten years after graduating from medical school I had finished my Cardiothoracic training. I completed a thoracic surgery fellowship in Brigham and Women’s Hospital/Harvard Medical School, Boston, USA, as a bit of a “finishing school” and returned as a Consultant Thoracic Surgeon in Belfast in 2020.

I love the job I do, and my time in Belfast High set me on the path. My brother and I both went to BHS, my dad finished BHS in 1969 and came back many years later to teach. My wife is a “non-Belfast High-er”, and twenty years after I left she still complains everyone we know is Belfast High. I think that says it all!