Neurologist and author Oliver Sacks has let it be known that he is dying.
For many years he has been an inspiration to me, ever since I read The Man Who Mistook His Wife For a Hat.
His writing combines relentless scientific curiosity with a deep empathy towards the patients he comes into contact with. This has earned him a world-wide correspondence and the many case histories people have sent him over the years make his books fascinating almost beyond belief.
In the final chapter of The Mind's Eye, he gives a courageous personal account of suffering from a retinal tumor. At the time it was successfully removed. Unfortunately it must have left behind a trace which has since spread.