Tonight on Sunday ` struck down by an enemy he never saw coming. DOG BARKS DOG BARKS (GIGGLES) He'd die for me, um, protecting me. A cop and his dog,... He gets to track and bite the bad guy at the end of it. ...now fighting another force of evil. Not seeing her get married, have grandchildren. I think he was angry. He was pretty gutted. And the renowned surgeon offering hope. How many operations have you done? How many operations have you done? (CHUCKLES) Copyright TVNZ Access Services 2013 Kia ora. I'm Miriama Kamo. Yogi ` he's a police dog with titanium teeth. He's ferocious. He's taken down more customers than most, and his bark is as bad as his bite. But Yogi's master is in trouble. Constable Blair Spalding is an officer down, struck by the bad guy ` an enemy force he never saw coming. Janet McIntyre reports on the extraordinary journey Blair is taking to get back on his feet, back on the beat. Get on the ground now! Do it! Best you avoid an encounter with Blair Spalding when he's on the job,... Let the dog go! Stay where you are, please. ...and his partner, Yogi. Good boy. We're out. Good boy. Yogi and I ` uh, we've got each other's backs. Leave! Do not bite the dog. Inseparable. Good boy. He'd die for me, um, protecting me. Among the best in the business. Keep your arms in the air and walk towards the road. It'd be in the hundreds of people we've caught that would have got away if it wasn't for Yogi. Tickle, tickle. Give him a brush on his head. (GIGGLES) At home, though, Yogi is a sook. And Constable Spalding is the devoted dad of 2-year-old Indie. Up. Down. Up. Already mastering her dad's moves. Down. (GIGGLES) You wouldn't want her to be cop, would you? No, I'd love for her to be a cop. (CHUCKLES) No, it's a great occupation. COMMS RADIO CHATTER The chances are pretty good. Alpha, lima, echo... Indie's mum, Carla, is also a cop. You able to get ambos? We'll put him in the recovery position. Slight, quietly spoken, often alone on the beat,... Just drive down the road and take him to a cell. ...but fearless. When people are yelling at me or trying to, you know, have a fight, you've got to hold your ground and let them know you're serious, because otherwise they'll walk over you. So you can overpower them? So you can overpower them? Mm. Two Waikato cops at the peak of their careers ` Indie, their daughter, Yogi, the dog. But there's a problem. OMINOUS MUSIC Three weeks ago in Hanover, Germany, Blair's life is on the line. They go the risks, and there's plenty of them. Worst one is obviously death. (CHUCKLES) Blair is my life. He is my life. Good boy. I was always going to be a police officer. I knew it from a young age. Stay. And he moved through the ranks to get his dream job ` on the front line with a dog. < You gonna give him a hug? < You gonna give him a hug? < (GIGGLES) And this one with titanium teeth. Tickle, tickle, tickle, tickle. He had two teeth knocked out by an offender several years ago, so those obviously had to be replaced with these teeth he's got now. Yeah, they look the part, but not as good as the real ones, but you need a police dog with teeth. Good boy. Good boy. Good boy. Yes. Good boy. Good boy. So what does he get now as a reward? > That is his reward ` he gets to track and bite the bad guy at the end of it, and that's what he loves to do, as you can tell. Blair has, like, an extra-special determination to hunt down bad guys and put them before the courts, so he is a little bit special, a bit above and beyond the average, that's for sure. 'Mark Sanford, Blair's boss.' What do the crims think of him? What do the crims think of him? Dunno. Probably not much, because he catches so many of them. PENSIVE MUSIC Blair and his work partner were hitting their straps,... Heel! ...winning dog-handling competitions, aiming for the top. Heel. Blair and his other partner had a date in Rarotonga ` to get married. Until this came along. > Until this came along. > Yeah, until this came along. Mm. Late 2011, Blair was bothered by dizzy spells, then some numbness; pins and needles. I actually felt like a fraud in hospital, waiting to get my MRI scan, cos there were sick people all around me. I was just in bed, thinking, 'I really should not be here. I feel quite well.' And then they told` they told me by myself. No one else was in the room, and it's like, who are they talking about? That can't be me. A large malignant tumour in his brain. And then when the doctor told us, um, said, two to eight years, we left there and we couldn't even talk to each other. We just didn't know what to say. How did he deal with it? I think he was angry. He was pretty gutted. Like, he'd come home and just look at Indie and you could tell... yeah. EMOTIONALLY: It was playing through his mind that he might not see her even make school. Go. Go. BOTH CHUCKLE 'Oh, sh-she's a massive part of our life, and she always will be.' Got you. 'That was and still is my biggest fear ` not seeing her reach her milestones and her goals.' No more? You have a really special relationship with her, don't you? You have a really special relationship with her, don't you? Mm. Did you imagine that this would be what fatherhood is? Uh, I knew it would be, in terms of the amount of joy she gives me, um, but... (SNIFFS) not the part about probably not seeing get her married, have grandchildren. Is that one in there? Might be one tomato in there. Hmm. Hmm. Oh, oh. What do you say? Thank you, Mum. Two weeks after the diagnosis, Blair was in an operating theatre at Waikato hospital, but surgery to remove the tumour was only partially successful. 7cm long, it was difficult to distinguish from normal brain tissue, and surgeons were cautious. They could remove only a 2cm section. A large amount of it still remains in my brain. As he recovered, endured 36 weeks of chemo, Blair was on leave, but never off duty. Carla and I were actually leaving the hospital, and we saw a guy running down the road, and we both thought that was pretty suspicious. Turned out he'd just done an aggravated robbery. The guy ran as fast as he could, so I jumped out of the car and chased him down, so I was quite happy with that, and I obviously hadn't lost any of my speed, even though I'd just come out of chemotherapy. You chased him down, and then what? He got on the ground, and I arrested him for burglary and waited for the other cars to arrive at that stage. And you'd just walked out from having chemotherapy. And you'd just walked out from having chemotherapy. Literally 10 minutes before, yeah. For Blair, giving up, giving in to a disease that could take his life in as little as two years was not an option, so he and Carla searched the internet and found an alternative ` a radical, expensive operation available in Germany ` a glimmer of hope to prolong his life. Uh, the surgery alone ` 50,000 euro. Uh, the surgery alone ` 50,000 euro. So about NZ$80,000. Could you afford it? Could you afford it? No, but we'd find the money somehow, that was our attitude. Um,... I don't think anyone really could afford it. I don't think anyone really could afford it. The house? Yes. If we had to sell everything, we would sell everything. In the end, they didn't have to. As word spread about Blair, first in the Waikato, then through the whole country, hearts were touched. Help came flooding in. AUCTIONEERS SHOUT An auction in Hamilton alone raised over $70,000. It's blown us away. We've been very lucky to have that police family, that network across the country, and just people that have got involved and taken it upon themselves to do some fundraising. A lot of our job you only see bad things, either bad people or bad things that have happened to good people, and so sometimes you can sort of think everything out there is bad, but it's really opened our eyes up again. There's so many people out there. GENTLE MUSIC With $230,000 raised, the trip Germany was booked, finally, a wedding in Whitianga. I promise to love you without reservation. And now you are husband and wife, so Blair, how about you kiss your beautiful bride. CHEERING, APPLAUSE We really wanted to be married before we went overseas, just to go as a family, just to have the same surname and be able to tell the doctors that I'm his wife. Two weeks later, the new Spalding family is up and away. Next ` Blair has come to Hanover, in northern Germany, for radical surgery that wouldn't be and couldn't be performed at home. You have the best expertise. You have the best equipment. Both together can do magic. < Magic? < Magic? Magic. MAJESTIC MUSIC In traditional northern Germany, a hospital like no other. built to look like a brain, it has two hemispheres and a column in between to take you to the top. At first glance, it's more like a five-star hotel than a hospital. There's not a gurney in sight, not a whiff of antiseptic or hospital food. It's so quiet. It's almost as if patients are meant forget they're here for life-saving surgery. So this whole building runs from...? From above, downwards. In the top-floor office of the brain building he founded, neurosurgeon 75-year-old Madjit Samii. How many operations have you done? (CHUCKLES) You know, this is, uh, around` more than 20,000. Iranian-born Professor Samii, internationally noted as a pioneering neurosurgeon over 45 years, does things others won't. High-risk cases are mostly the reason why the patients are coming to us. And your general approach is a radical approach, right? Yes, absolutely, but if possible. And in Blair's case, you intend to be radical. I intend to be radical, and I hope very much that we are successful, and that this is the reason why I am going to do it, otherwise I would refuse that. It's an unlikely destination for honeymooners ` the International Neuroscience Institute of Hanover. What's this place? Daddy's up high. Gonna fix Daddy's head in there. Gonna fix Daddy's head in there. Yeah. Gonna fix Daddy's head in there. Yeah. Yeah. Carla and Blair, three weeks married, facing the challenge of their lives. I have to be brave, and I have to put that smile on his face, because it's us three here and it's all we've got. Does it make a difference, being Mrs Spalding? Does it make a difference, being Mrs Spalding? (CHUCKLES) I'm a bit more bossy, I think. I'm a bit more bossy, I think. I-I love saying it. Carla Spalding. (CHUCKLES) You're a lucky girl. Yeah. I think that every day. Yeah. I think that every day. And I'm a lucky guy. < Hello. This is Carla. Blair. Blair. Blair. Pleased to meet you. Blair. Pleased to meet you. Welcome to Hanover. Thank you. I heard you are a very active policeman, and helping people and people love you. and helping people and people love you. Used to be, used to be. Our goal is really to remove that tumour as much as possible ` almost everything what we can see, and we do this in a brain suite. This is the brain suite, price tag $8 million. We don't have one in NZ. It's an operating theatre combined with an MRI scanner, letting surgeons see clearly, as they operate, what their own eyes cannot. The day before Blair's surgery, and he's in for preliminary scans. < WOMAN: Everything OK? < WOMAN: Everything OK? < Yes. < WOMAN: Everything OK? < Yes. < Good. Within minutes the tumour is ominously obvious, deep in his cortex. What's the significance of the tumour being so close to this part here? The significance, actually, the closer the tumour b` uh, to the cortical spinal tracts, the more dangerous it is. You need to preserve them. The purple tracts control hand and foot movement. Is it pushing that part of the brain? It's minimally pushing, but I would say there's a good distance we can approach. Are you OK? Are you OK? Yep. Are you OK? Yep. Good. Perfect. We've seen your MRI, what's going on there ` is it becoming more real for you, what you're about to face? Definitely. Today has been a big wake-up call. We're here for a reason, and that's to get this thing removed, or the best part of it. Scary. Yeah, it was scary when we spoke with the neurosurgeon earlier in the day, when they go though the risks in` in depth, and there are plenty of them ` paralysis, speech loss, memory loss, cognitive function loss, um,... and we don't even like to say the worst one, is obviously death. (CHUCKLES) I'd be lying to say I wasn't scared. Blair's particular surgery ` would you describe it as a challenge for you? Yeah, it's is located not in a very simple area, you know. It is a risky case, and therefore I spoke to him. I told him we try our best, but there is still some risk, even in my hands. About your hands ` you're 75. Is there any tremor in your hands? Here. Here. (CHUCKLES) > Here, you see. Do you see any tremor? Well, it's important, isn't it, for a neurosurgeon to have steady hands? No, I have` I have more control of my fingers than at any time in my life. 180,000km from the Waikato, from the secure lives they once had, from the comfort of home, family and friends ` Yogi the dog ` it's operation day. It's a bracelet. No, don't break it. It's not time to come off yet. They won't know who your daddy is. < You had a bit more information from Professor Samii last night. They're gonna use` I don't know if you can see the cut on my` the scar on my head already, but they're going to using the same incision line, but extending it further over to the left side as well and then down towards the back, so it's going to be a lot more removed from my head, by the sounds of it, but that will just add to my good looks in the future, no doubt. We hope it goes well. So many people do We hope it goes well. So many people do Yep. Yep, this is for the` everyone who helped us out in NZ. The big day's arrived. Next, the 75-year-old surgeon gives Blair his all. Nothing is existing for me, only Blair is. My life. He is my life. Welcome back. Constable Blair Spalding may have only a couple of years to live. His best chance for a longer life is total removal of his brain tumour. It's radical and risky surgery that couldn't be done in the Waikato. GUNFIRE Highly skilled, a member of the Armed Offenders Squad, Blair Spalding has confronted dangerous offenders in the Waikato for 16 years. I get upset with criminals victimising good people. I mean, that's why I get so much satisfaction in catching people that do that. Never did he imagine he'd be taken down by his own body and that just 18 months after his first dizzy spell he'd be in a German hospital, putting his brain, all his body's functions, his life in the hands of a very self-assured surgeon, Professor Madjit Samii. You cannot imagine how much power I receive after successful surgeries. Power? Power? I was able to help and save the life and solve most difficult problems. And Blair's is difficult. OK, I can start. He has a deep-seated tumour near to the part of the brain that controls his hand and foot movement ` INSTRUMENTS WHIR ...a tumour Waikato surgeons couldn't remove. We see that there's at least 2cm to 3cm to the tumour. Blair will be in the brain suite nine hours, Professor Samii using MRI images to guide his hands to the tumour. So you removed most of the tumour? So you removed most of the tumour? 70%, 80% of the tumour. And so you weren't sure exactly where it stopped? And so you weren't sure exactly where it stopped? Yeah. Yeah. And so now through the MRI, you can see there's a little bit left? Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. And so what's next? The MRI shows much more that we can see with out eyes and microscope, and next step is to remove that part also. Everything has gone to Professor Samii's plan. There was tumour which has been removed. I went in every direction, followed the tumour to come to the normal healthy area. That is what we have done, and, uh, in one area I stopped ` this very delicate area, and I have now removed this part as well. So that` I am happy that we could managed that and every structures are preserved, and I hope the patient has a, I hope, a very good outcome, you know. The day after surgery. Feels good to be over. And I've got feeling in my hands and feet and everything else, which is a good sign. And a fat lip. I feel cold on my feet, which is good. Um,... I can smile. (CHUCKLES) The good news is that they` they got the tumour out. Yeah. Yeah. There's a big black hole where... It used to be. It used to be. Yeah, big black hole. It used to be. Yeah, big black hole. That has to be a good sign. There would be challenges in the days ahead ` Blair developed deep-vein thrombosis and embolisms on his lung, but by day 10 he was up and walking well. Should we go down here? And a week after that... So today you are leaving the hospital. So today you are leaving the hospital. Yes, thank you. And you are happy, of course. (CHUCKLES) And you are happy, of course. (CHUCKLES) (CHUCKLES) Thank you. And you can move everything? You have no deficit? And you can move everything? You have no deficit? No, I-I` I feel good. I think he was a lot better after the home-cooked meal I made him, but he's very excited to come home, and Indie was up at five with excitement ` 'Daddy's coming home'. Yeah! Yeah! Yes. Up, up. As Blair continues to recover, the Spaldings will stay in Europe for another two months. (GURGLES) Then Blair hopes he'll be reunited with Yogi, and he can get back to work. It's gonna take me a little while to get my, uh, fitness or strength back 100%-wise, but, um, look, I'm feeling pretty good, and if I could, and if I was back in NZ, I think I'd be able to handle Yogi or train with Yogi as I was before coming over here. I'm actually feeling better now than when I was before I got here, so, um, things` signs are positive. PENSIVE MUSIC OK, so the outlook for Blair? Well, doctors say complete removal of the tumour will likely extend his life, more than if it had been left in his brain. By how much, though, is not known, and of course, we do wish Blair and the family the very best. Well, coming up next week ` Mrs Brown ` Brendan O'Carroll ` the man behind the foul-mouthed Irish matriarch of Mrs Brown's Boy's. Ah, look at you. Ah, look at you. Hello, son. Look at you. You look so well. You're getting big. He's getting very big. Come on, son, let's go. Do you like Agnes Brown? > Agnes Brown has fed my children. She's educated my children. She's bought all of them a house. She's made my friends, and those who I love, very comfortable in their lives. She makes me laugh. I love Agnes Brown. He does a stint as a male stripper in his part time. You can see why. He has lovely credentials. (CHUCKLES) See you, Ross. Bye! See you, Ross. Bye! See you, Agnes. > Brendan O'Carroll, aka Agnes Brown on Sunday next week. She... He... is a good watch. That's us for tonight. Love to see you on Facebook.