A DARWEN trainee army medic was kept awake during life saving brain surgery - the operation features in a TV documentary this week.

Private Cameron Ray fell ill in February last year at Whittington Barracks in Staffordshire and was diagnosed first with meningitis and then a brain tumour.

Amazingly, medics kept him awake during brain surgery to make sure the neurosurgeon was not harming him.

Lancashire Telegraph:

Speech therapist Becky Marr kept Private Ray talking during his 'awake brain surgery' so that surgeon Ismail Ughratdar knew where it was safe for him to operate.

You can watch a clip of the surgery below.

Although Private Ray, now 21 and whose parents Richard and Jackie live in Radfield Road, knows his tumour may come back he is determined to complete his training.

His operation features in the BBC Two documentary 'Surgeons: At The Edge of Life' a 9pm tomorrow night.

Private Ray said: "I was part-way through my training when, within the space of three weeks, I went from being the fittest I had ever been to being barely able to get out of bed.

"I went to the medical centre where a doctor checked me over and told me I had suspected meningitis.

Lancashire Telegraph:

"That was bad enough but it turned out the reality was worse. I had a brain scan at Good Hope Hospital, Sutton Coldfield, which revealed I had a tumour. On June 20 I underwent an awake craniotomy

"While the surgery saved my life and was successful in almost completely removing the mass the size of a ping pong ball, it turned out the tumour was cancerous and likely to grow back.

“People with this type of high-grade cancer are usually given a life expectancy of three to five years but I’m young and fit so I’m hoping for five or seven, years or maybe even 15 to 20. I know that I was lucky and I had the best possible outcome.

"I felt remarkably well very soon after the op but a couple of days later, and very suddenly, I lost all of my speech.

"When I first found out about my tumour I just couldn’t accept it but now I feel on top of the world.

"My biggest hope now is that I will be able to complete my training and serve my country as a medic in the British Army.

"In many ways a brain tumour is an invisible disease. No-one would have known I had one had it not been for the fact I fell ill with something else.

"It seems unfair so little money has been invested into research and I want to do my bit in making people aware of these issues."

* Army nurse Kirsty Slane, 39, who helped care for him is running 170 miles of marathons to raise cash for research into brain tumours via the charity Brain Tumour Research.