A dad has been given just months to live after struggling to swallow a sausage and bacon sandwich led to him being diagnosed with an aggressive cancer. Des Longstaff, 39, said it felt like part of the sandwich had got stuck in his oesophagus while he was at work.
The landscaper, from Blackpool, immediately knew something was wrong and got the situation checked out. He has now been diagnosed with advanced stage-four oesophageal adenocarcinoma, a particularly aggressive cancer in the oesophagus that has spread to his liver.
As reported by Devon Live, doctors have given Des an estimated life expectancy of 12 months. Cancer Research UK says the cancer can’t be cured but Des is hoping to stay alive for as long as possible to spend time with his five-year-old son.
Des, from Blackpool, explained what happened: “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?'”
Des immediately went to the doctor but, before he could have an endoscopy, threw up blood before later noticing blood in his stool. Doctors then found a 35cm tumour in his lower oesophagus on Christmas Eve.
Des was hoping to have keyhole surgery but the cancer had quickly spread to his liver. This meant his choices for treatment were difficult but he has since started immunotherapy treatment, which trains white blood cells to attack the cancer, and a light form of chemotherapy.
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.”
A GoFundMe page has been set by his mum Tracy. It hopes to raise enough money to send Des to Germany to explore new treatments.
Tracy 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.”
Des said the funrasier is his last chance and hopes to raise £44,000 to pay for the ten-day procedure in Germany. It has currently raised around £42,700.
He 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.”
He added: “It is my only hope to see my five-year-old boy grow up. He is the apple of my eye.”
