his first house job was at the cheltenham general hospital, where he worked with surgeon peter boreham, who encouraged him to pursue the field of urology and particularly prostate disease. subsequently, he took up posts at brighton, wolverhampton, and gloucester. he passed in the final fellowship of the royal colleges of surgeons in 1979. kirby later described how a number of people in the 1970s had not heard of the prostate gland. during this time, he had attended to a number of people with large prostates that blocked urine flow and a number of people with inflammation of the prostate, which caused pain. when he did see someone with prostate cancer, only two basic surgical options were available on offer: removing the testicles or an operation that removed the middle of the prostate.