Gary Stewart, who is married to Maria and has a 17-year-old daughter, Lillie, had next to no experience of hospitals until recently - he'd hardly even been to a GP over the past 20 years.
But on a Saturday evening in late August he collapsed at home in Co Kildare and was taken to Naas Hospital.
"They thought I'd had a heart attack as I felt an electrical slap across my chest," he explains. After examination this was ruled out and he was referred to the Blackrock Clinic for an MRI, and from there to Beaumont Hospital where he was diagnosed as having a low grade brain tumour.
"The team discussed with me what they could do, from radiology to operating," says Gary.
Because the tumour was very near the speech and movement areas of the brain, surgery could have left him unable to speak.
"I was prepared to loose my speech," he says. "I thought I was on the way out. I was concerned with getting this thing [the brain tumour] out."
However, when the option of awake brain surgery was put to Gary he was "delighted to say yes on that. I was very willing to go through with it as it was the best option for my tumour."
The surgery took place on September 28th, about four weeks after Gary initially collapsed.
He doesn't remember feeling any pain in the operation. He was a bit worried about waking up with a start but his head was clamped down so he couldn't move.
"Neither was I inclined to move," he says.
Now he's recuperating at home and is still a "wee bit tired but that's the way you'd be after a major operation".
When asked how it felt to be the first person in Ireland to have awake surgery, he says: "It felt good. I was very pleased to have the option as anything else of a prognosis wasn't great."