Brian Lenihan getting ready to race again after successful procedure at St Vincent’s hospital in Dublin
Mon Oct 26 2026 - 12:00 • 3 MIN READ
It was July 2025 when Brian Lenihan first noticed blood in his urine. It began as a small amount, but the then 44-year-old became concerned when it increased to alarming quantities, which prompted him to see a doctor.
“I was diagnosed with bladder cancer. I remember being in complete shock. That was the worst minute, hour, day of the whole journey. When you hear the word cancer, you just wonder is this going to be terminal?” he said.
Lenihan, a keen marathon runner, began chemotherapy and immunotherapy in September of that year.
For many people, bladder cancer surgery means having a bladder removed and living with a stoma bag – a small, soft, waterproof pouch that attaches to an abdominal opening to collect waste from the body.
The Limerick man, who now lives in south Dublin, was offered an alternative: a neobladder.
In this procedure, a team at St Vincent’s hospital in Dublin performed robotic surgery to remove his bladder and replace it with a new internal pouch created from a segment of his intestine. Following rehabilitation, it now operates like a normal bladder.
“You wouldn’t know unless I told you. The incision for the surgery was so small as well,” he said.
Dr Nikita Bhatt, a urological surgeon who specialises in robotic surgery and who led the operation, said Lenihan was one of the first patients in Ireland to have this surgery done robotically.
“If you get your bladder out, obviously you need a way to remove the urine through either a stoma bag or a neobladder, which is when a new bladder is formed from your bowel.”
However, Bhatt said until now the vast majority of neobladder surgeries have been done through open surgery, which has a high risk of complications.
“Recovery is very prolonged. But since they’ve been doing robotic surgery, it’s much better because people can go home. His operation took eight hours, it was completely keyhole and was able to start using his neobladder within three weeks,” she said.
Bhatt has done three of these surgeries this year so far and has another one scheduled next month. She said for Lenihan it means he doesn’t have a bladder, but his body operates as if he does.
“A stoma bag is very obvious. It carries a certain level of stigma,” she said, adding that bladder cancer is increasing in younger ages and alternative options are better to improve a person’s quality of life after cancer.
The shorter recovery time was something for which Lenihan was particularly grateful.
“I was in hospital for eight days and then I was released home under what’s called the virtual wards. So I had an iPad and I checked in twice a day with my vital signs. That was great, it really helped my recovery because it’s just impossible to relax and sleep in a hospital,” he said.
“For four weeks, I was told not to lift the kids, and to do absolutely no heavy lifting because there was lots of internal trauma. Two months later, I was able to go back out for a run. Recovery isn’t linear; there are great days and some you feel crap. But those days are now less and less.”
Lenihan’s hope after surgery was to run this year’s Dublin marathon, having ran 13 others in the past.
While he made the decision to skip Sunday’s run, it was more from a competitive point of view than due to his ability to run the 26 miles.
“I was quite a competitive runner – 10 months before my diagnosis I ran Dublin in 2 hours 32 [minutes]. But I just felt like my energy wasn’t there, that I would have to walk some of the last 10km, and I didn’t want that,” he said.
“For me, running the 42km wasn’t the difficult part. It was to run for a specific time that was more difficult. But I’ll be on a marathon starting line very shortly. Dublin only happens once a year, but there are lots of other races.”
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Source: The Irish Times · Shauna Bowers
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