RETIRED heart surgeon Professor Chris Barnard is to undergo operation next month for skin cancer on his nose, he told a Sunday newspaper. The 77-year-old surgeon told the Rapport newspaper that he will undergo extensive surgery, including grafting skin from his forehead onto his nose, in Cape Town on December 20. ”The prognosis is good and I have every hope of a complete recovery,” Barnard said. Barnard achieved international fame in 1967 when he led the team which performed the pioneering operation in Cape Town’s Groote Schuur hospital.