Image caption Bill Attew was in complete agony

The stabbing pains in Bill Attew's face were excruciating - so severe that at times he wished he could go to sleep and never wake up.

What had started as a 'niggly' feeling in his cheek had rapidly worsened and led to two years of intense pain.

He had to stop working, phone calls were too painful to take and eventually even eating and drinking became too painful.

Doctors quickly diagnosed trigeminal neuralgia - caused when a blood vessel presses on a nerve, sending the wrong messages to the brain.

Increasing pain

But no treatment seemed to work and Bill, aged 58, from Middlesex, found himself being passed from hospital to hospital.

"I had a dreadful pain in the left hand side of my face," he said.

Ihad seen on TV - where a woman with a similar condition was cured.

The friend traced the clip through the internet, and Bill made contact with the Spire Hospital in Bristol.

A week after his initial consultation Bill was booked in for an operation. As soon as he came round he noticed that the pain had vanished.

"As I came out of theatre, I thought 'he's done it'," he said.

"There was no pain and I needed no painkillers. "

It is regarded as probably the worst pain imaginable Mr Nik Patel, Consultant

Consultant Mr Nik Patel said Bill's pain had been caused by a blood vessel pressing on the trigeminal nerve. He performed an operation to decompress the nerve - easing the pressure and lessening the pain.

"It is a quite rare, but