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During my preparation for Part II FRCS exam and haveing attended few courses already, I found this to be the most helpful course and I’m really grateful for the faculty and for this reason I decided to join them and this was a great opportunity to take part in helping others. I passed my exam in my first attempt and I really think this course has helped me in achieving this.

I got to know about the Phoenix FRCS course from Rishabha Sharma. I met him at a CCrISP course where both of us were faculty observers. I found Rishabha to be very passionate about the FRCS course, and I found the format that he described very interesting. He invited me to the August course held in Kent. I wish I had done this course all those years ago when I was battling with the exam! Then I would have passed in the first shot. What struck me was that it was very hands-on- the focus is on practice and more practice. This is what is precisely needed.

I asked a cross-section of the candidates, and they all found it very useful including people who had already been to other FRCS exam courses. This philosophy of ' practice practice ' does not end with the course. The faculty offer skype sessions to the candidates to consolidate their gain. The structure of the course is beneficial for both - the Domestic Intercollegiate exam and the international FRCS.

Having recognized that more surgeons would appear for the international FRCS and would benefit from this course, the faculty are also deliberating to expand it overseas. One possible venue would be the Middle East and India.

I met Mr Sharma and Mr Nadeem while attending the Alpine Course in January 2017 in Les Arcs, France. It was that meeting that made a strong bond between us and we conceptualized that in future we will find a way to help others through the very last examination of their career. After that, we appeared in the Intercollegiate FRCS examinations and passed it. We got together in Manchester and organised the first course. We shared our learning curve with the participants through short tutorials, mock vivas and visual presentations while preparing for the examination. To our tremendous surprise, the results from the first course were excellent. Another course further followed this, and the rest is all history. I completed my CCT in HPB and general surgery and proceeded to the USA for two years of Abdominal Transplant and HPB fellowship and aim to return to the UK mid-summer 2020.

I have been associated with the Phoenix course for the last 2 years now. Mr Sanjay Joshi and I wanted to utilise our exam preparation to help prospective FRCS candidates, the Phoenix course envisaged by Rish made this possible. The uniqueness of this course is its valuable clinical and viva practice which is very essential and has become very popular as per the candidates’ feedback.

I completed my higher surgical training from the KSS Deanery, I have spent over 3 years in bariatric training including one post CCT fellowship. I have spent 2 years in resection upper GI surgery in my training as well. My contribution towards this course are in the field of:

• Oesophago-gastric resection surgery.

• Benign upper GI including Bariatric Surgery.

• Hepatobiliary surgery.

• Upper GI emergencies.

• Academic viva.