On 29 November 2001 I had my surgeon meeting.  They really built this up so I thought it was going to be a massive deal.  I drove all the way down to Portsmouth again, and Joel and I went in. 

My surgeon, a lovely big smiley guy called Mr Abusin (ironic name for a lovely man who does loads of work for charity and was regarded by everyone in Portsmouth as a bit of a saint), regarded me over the desk.  I was really worried that he would ask me difficult questions – they are constantly talking about not pressuring you and they want to make sure that no one is coercing you – so you basically end up with this massive fixed smile on your face saying "Yes, I understand all the details, yes I am really, really, really happy about doing this, blah, blah, blah."

He did do all the obligatory information and questions, told me all my results were fine and all they had to do now was the angiogram… and um… have a nice day.

What a let down – I popped back in my car again and went home – there was a lot of driving involved in my donation!