Need Hips. Will Travel.

continued

But he didn't have the money to pay for them. Born in London in 1962, Brooks moved to America in 2006 because "this country is the home of the blues, and I wanted a chance to strut my stuff here. Also, I was out of work in England and got offered a job here at a local church, the Vineyard."

"I was with the Vineyard for three years. The official answer as to why I left was because they said they couldn't afford me, though they weren't paying me very much to begin with. The unofficial answer is there are two kinds of people who lose their job: those who are really bad at it and those who are really good at it. I'm the latter.

"My wife and I had bought a small health insurance policy when we left the Vineyard," continues Brooks, "and it turned out it was crappy. Out of pocket, the operation would have cost us $80,000 if we had it done here. I phoned up one or two charitable support trusts at local hospitals that help cases like me, and was told I didn't meet the criteria because I had health insurance. So we were screwed: $80,000 might as well have been a million dollars. And even if we moved back to the UK, I would have to have waited eighteen months for the operation.