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Addenbrooke鈥檚 and Royal Papworth hospitals are two of the country鈥檚 leading centres of medical excellence, and they are situated just metres apart on the Cambridge Biomedical Campus, the largest centre of medical research and health science in Europe. Over the past 100 years, approximately 50 Nobel Prize winners in chemistry, physiology or medicine have been associated with Cambridge and, while many of the 40 thousand operations carried out here each year are routine, some are so unusual and complex that only surgeons at the top of their game can perform them. This episode focuses on two operations that push their skills and stamina to the limit.

At Royal Papworth, senior consultant thoracic surgeon Aman Coonar calls on the skills of Addenbrooke鈥檚 plastic surgeon Charles Malata to undertake a chest wall reconstruction - a complex procedure that is scheduled to last at least 12 hours. Their patient is a former builder, 59-year-old Kevin, who has been suffering for 15 years since having a cancerous lung removed. The cancer was cured, but the cavity left in his chest has never healed, and Kevin has had to live with an open hole in his back.

At Addenbrooke鈥檚 hospital, another marathon operation also requires the skills of two different specialties - Richard Mannion, one of the hospital鈥檚 leading neurosurgeons, and consultant ENT surgeon Patrick Axon. Their patient, 47-year-old father of four Gulraiz, has a rare type of tumour called an acoustic neuroma growing at the back of his brain on the hearing nerve. The tumour is growing so fast it is pressing on Gulraiz鈥檚 brain stem and affecting his ability to walk and speak. If it is not removed soon, he will die.