A dad has been given just 12 months to live after he noticed something was wrong when trying to eat a bacon and sausage sandwich at work.
Des Longstaff, 39, has since been diagnosed with advanced stage four oesophageal adenocarcinoma, an aggressive cancer in the food pipe that has spread to his liver. He has been told he is terminal with an estimated life expectancy of 12 months, something the landscape contractor is hoping to prolong so he can spend more precious time with his little boy who is five.
According to Cancer Research UK, it usually can’t be cured, and Des is now looking at different ways to stay alive for as long as possible.
Symptoms
The desperate father, who is from Blackpool, spoke to BristolLive about his warning signs, saying: “I am a landscaper by trade and I was doing a job for one of my friends and his partner had made me a bacon and sausage sandwich. When I was eating it – I hadn’t put any sauce on or anything – it sort of got lodged in my oesophagus and I had a good pint of water but it still wouldn’t budge.
“It was to the point where you’re thinking you’re choking. I thought to myself, ‘Am I not chewing it properly?’”
Concerned, Des went to the doctor where they recommended an endoscopy, but before this was possible, he threw up blood before later noticing blood in his stool. He was ordered to go to hospital immediately where a 35cm tumour in his lower oesophagus was found on Christmas Eve.
Des was hoping to have keyhole surgery to remove the tumour. However, a subsequent scan revealed the cancer had spread to his liver, meaning his choices are limited.
Treatment
He has just started immunotherapy treatment which is to train his white blood cells to attack the cancer. He is also on a light form of chemotheraphy.
However, he said: “It is palliative and it is to keep me comfortable so I don’t die straight away. I couldn’t have knocked it back. It is something to attack the cancer otherwise it is going to spread all over the place. The NHS has only given me 12 months to live.”
Last chance
But there is a slither of hope for Des and this is where his mum, Tracy, has come in. She has set up a GoFundMe page, to raise enough money to send her son to Germany to explore new treatments. She said: “Des is unable to work and will not be able to for the foreseeable future, we are exploring new treatments in Germany to give Des the best chance of a 5 year plus life expectancy.”
The page has already raised more than £31,000 and explaining the ten-day procedure, which cost €52,000 (approximately £43,000), Des said: “In Germany they have a totally different outlook. They have one of the best treatment plans over there and there is no such thing as terminal.
“If you are terminal you are riddled with it but I’m not. It has stayed localised and at the moment I have two small dots and they are going to turn into tumours if I am not careful.
“So the idea is to go to Germany where they are going to target the liver. It is basically an injection going into the liver that will give me the highest dose of chemotherapy but it will only target those two dots. They are going to cut off the main artery to the main tumour in my oesophagus and they will let that die for five days.
“They will then cut it out and scrape around my diaphragm and around my stomach lining but they will build the stomach lining up by putting mesh around it basically.”
Des said it was his last chance, and thanking people who had made incredibly generous donations so far, he added: “It is my only hope to see my five-year-old boy grow up. He is the apple of my eye.”
You can donate to the GoFundMe page to help give Des more time with this son here