Mr. Roughly was one of the first patients in Britain to be operated on by the robotic machine nicknamed Robo Doc and costing £1.3million. David Roughly put his trust in a robot and he was rewarded with the results. The 55-year-old surveyor was back at home just two days after a robot surgeon removed his prostate. It usually takes a week to ten days in hospital to recover. The robot, which was used at the Christie Hospital in Manchester, has four arms which rotate 360 degrees and can carry out procedures with extraordinary precision. Because the process is less invasive than regular surgery, lower doses of anaesthetic are used, patients lose less blood and the chances of infection are reduced.

As well as an amazingly quick recovery, Mr. Roughly found he had little pain.

"I was a little apprehensive before but when you have an operation you have to put yourself in the doctor's hands anyway," he said from his home in Wigan. Doctors hope the opportunity of the robotic surgery, which gives a much better chance of recovering without impotence or incontinence, will encourage more men to ask for prostate cancer tests.

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