In February 2013, I underwent a 5 hour operation, in which Mr M Ishaque, and his team, reconstructed my neck. I was up and walking about the next day!

In July 2012, I did something that thousands of people do, every day, I sneezed. I felt my neck crick a little, but carried on mowing the lawn, the next day I was woken at 2 in the morning by an excruciating pain, which extended down the side of my neck and into my right arm. On the same day, I visited my GP who advised me to go to A & E immediately and was consequently admitted to my local hospital. After a week of being given painkillers, I sought the advice of a private surgeon, who gave me cortisone injections in my neck but this did nothing to alleviate my pain. I had a follow up appointment at the same hospital with a physiotherapist, she told me that I not only needed to see a Spinal Specialist, but it also had to be a Neuro Surgeon that specialised in Upper back and neck injuries, she told me of the best surgeon that she knew of, wrote me a referral letter and gave me the number of Mr Ishaque, at The Priory Hospital in Edgbaston.

I had x-rays taken and an MRI scan, which revealed the true extent of my injury and the reason, I was in so much pain. One of the discs in my neck had prolapsed rather badly and was pressing on my spinal column, trapping nerves to my arms.

The pain was so severe that I could not lie down, I had to sleep in an upright position, I could not use the mouse on my pc, I could not lift anything and my arms were going numb.

The first “specialist “ that I saw, said I needed an operation that would last for 2 hours, in which he would make an incision in my neck and remove the “bad stuff”, then I would be up and around in days. If I had taken this advice and had this operation, I would be back in hospital now having another operation to rectify the problem.

Mr Ishaque advised me that I needed a more complex operation, which in itself carried more risk but it was what I needed to correct the problem.

In February 2013, I underwent a 5 hour operation, in which Mr M Ishaque, and his team, reconstructed my neck. I was up and walking about the next day!

People said to me “Once you have your neck operated on, you will not be playing golf”, “you will be in constant pain”, “it will be with you for life” Let me tell you now that I play golf every weekend with absolutely no pain whatsoever, I drive every day and now have more lateral movement in my neck that I have had for years

I would like to extend my thanks and extreme gratitude to Mr Ishaque for what he has done for me, it is nothing short of amazing.

He also has an amazing team working alongside him with Mr Da Silva, a top class anaesthetist and not least, Mrs Linda Hamilton, his PA without, whose help and professionalism, this would have been a much more painful experience