Episode 3

In Cardiff, spinal surgeon Mike McCarthy hopes today he will finally operate on 14-year-old Brody, who has scoliosis, or curvature of the spine. Mike and his team have treated Brody at the Noah’s Ark Children’s Hospital for Wales since he was five. Today should be Brody’s 15th, and final, operation to straighten his spine. But it has been cancelled four times in 18 months, so Brody and his family fear that will happen again.

In the neighbouring University Hospital of Wales's maxillofacial department, surgeon Cellan Thomas’s priority today is 19-year-old Maham, whose life is on hold after what she thought was a small lump on her face turned out to be a rare and aggressive growth in her jaw. And there’s a bigger worry; the tumour could be cancerous. Cellan, fellow maxillofacial surgeon Drazsen Vuity and two specialist theatre teams have been assembled for a nine-hour operation to remove half of her jaw and rebuild her face.

Gynaecological oncology surgeon Aarti Sharma is fighting to give a mother of four with incurable cancer more time with her family. Forty-one-year-old Shelley has a diagnosis of terminal abdominal cancer. Shelley lost her own mother and aunty to cancer and has done all she can to reduce her risks, but sadly she has stage four cancer. Aarti’s hope is that surgery may give Shelley that bit more precious time with her family, however long that may be.