Prof Colm O’Mahony worked for 30 years as a consultant physician, at the Countess of Chester NHS Trust dealing with sexually transmitted infections, HIV / AIDS.  He was also the Postgraduate Tutor, for 7 years.

He first qualified in Science (Microbiology) in 1975, and then went on to do Medicine, in the hope of putting off the day when he would finally have to work for a living!  He did an MD in Immunology, but he was never clever enough to become a “real proper GP doctor”.  Fortuitously, he ended up in a VD Clinic in Sir Patrick Dunn’s Hospital in Dublin, doing a session, and there – like St Paul on the road to Damascus, enlightenment.  Here was just the job for your average repressed Irish Catholic.  Here were sex, shame, guilt, anxiety, confession, forgiveness, and penance.  He had found his niche!

He came to England in 1986 to explore the sexual diversity of Liverpool and finally to a consultant post in Chester in 1990.  As a cavalier Postgraduate Tutor, he infuriated and delighted.  Mostly however, he showed that life without sex, love, passion and desire is no life - at all, at all.

He was Chairman of the Association of GU Doctors in 2001 and was on the British HIV Association executive committee in 2005.  He founded the British association for sexual health and HIV (BASHH). As media rep he featured in “Sex, warts and all” on BBC, a Channel 4 series “Let’s talk sex” with Davina McCall, and in the “Girls’ Guide to 21^st Century Sex” on Channel 5, (Repeated often!). He featured with Stephen Fry on BBC “HIV and me”.

He was the UK rep and chair of the EADV media committee in 2009. He was president of Chester and North Wales medical society 2013 and elected president of Liverpool Medical Institution in 2017.  He wrote a highly popular regular column in the Journal of Sexually Transmitted Infections, entitled “Chester Chronicles”. He has lectured extensively in Europe, Australia, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Singapore, China, Korea, Baku and even recently Dubai and Jeddah, where apparently there no STD’s……

To his surprise, he was appointed senior lecturer, University of Liverpool, September 2018, as professionalism lead! This gave him ample opportunity to regale medical students with his stories of near misses, empathy and compassion and encounters with the GMC. He was awarded Hon Life Fellow of BASHH in 2019.

He was awarded visiting Professor Chester University and contracted as visiting lecturer for physician associates and Medicine.

Students can contact Professor O'Mahony on issues related to sexual health and HIV and also advice on professionalism.