Eleven climbers appeared to have died on the world's second highest mountain K2.

It was one of the deadliest days in mountaineering history.

Rock falls, avalanches.

Huge pieces of ice. All are big enough to kill you.

He just flew out into Devoid and he was gone.

How did it all go so wrong?

And is it really worth risking death to feel alive? Why would somebody

pay to go to a place called the death cell on a vacation? Extreme, peak danger. With me,

Natalia Melman Petrazella. Listen to the full series now. First on BBC Sounds. BBC Sounds, music, radio, podcasts.

Hello and welcome to the series that hears from extraordinary people who've gone through transformative experiences.

Today, a doctor who got in touch to tell us about a couple of times when he was called upon to help, but felt destined to fail. He was thrown into horrific

events that thankfully many of us will never see and it tested him, troubled him and changed him

forever. Tony, hello. Thanks very much for getting in touch with us. The roots of that change

was decades ago, but let's start

even further back to the early 1950s when you're growing up in Greater Manchester, a part of a

huge family by the sounds, fifth or six children. Gosh, very busy. What do you remember of that time?

Oh, I have very fond memories. We were very close family. We didn't have a lot of money, but nor did many people around us.

So we were always told we were very well off. But I particularly remember the weekends I spent with my aunt in Liverpool, who was a district midwife in one of the poorest parts of Liverpool just after Second World War.

And she used to let me go on her rounds with her.

You can't imagine it now.

But I got a real sort of understanding about medicine and a real interest in it.

And she explained things to me.

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