A step closer

Two more Italian 'virtual' consultations follow in quick succession. One of the surgeons concurs with Spallone, whilst the other rejects the notion of further surgery as being 'too risky'.
Risk? I 'shit' it! If it wasn't for man taking risks we'd still be in the stone age! Can you imagine Christopher Columbus saying, "I'm not getting on that boat, its too risky". Or Winston Churchill commenting, "War with Germany? I don't think so, too risky mate".

We return to the UK to tell my oncologist that I'm going to 'bite the bullet', 'dig deep in my pockets', and have the surgery in Rome. He's not a happy chappy, and urges me to have a consultation with the UK's premier neuro-surgeon, Mr Henry Marsh. The same surgeon that operated on classical singer Russell Watson a few months earlier. An appointment is set up.
A couple of weeks later I'm sitting in Mr Marsh's office going over my latest MRI from Italy. Mr Marsh is an extremely interesting and charismatic man with the appearance and mannerisms of Dr Emmett Brown, the time travel pioneer from Back To The Future. Like Spallone, he is confident that he can remove all if not most of the tumour. He acknowledges that there will be some risks, such as hemiparesis and death, and is keen to point out a major blood vessel and bundle of nerve fibres on my MRI. Take a nick out of the former and there'll be ten pints of my blood on the ceiling in a blink of an eye. Slice the latter and my best friend becomes a wheelchair. Nonetheless, I accept the offer of surgery, and Mr Marsh is openly astonished at my enthusiasm that I'll be awake throughout the operation. I explain to him that I remember vividly the lecture in my Clinical Neuropsychology module back in 1995. The lecturer explaining that in some cases neurosurgery is best performed whilst under local anaesthetic. This minimises the possibility of paralysis, hemiparesis or loss of some other function such as speech or memory.
No date is set, but he tells me that he'll fit me in on the next available Monday (the day he operates) at St Georges, Tooting. In the meantime I've got a wedding date on the 6th January. My wedding.