Des Longstaff, 39, was given just 12 months to live after he noticed he had difficulty swallowing his sandwich and later discovered a tumour was lodged in his throat
A dad was given just months to live after he noticed a weird symptom while he tried to eat a bacon and sausage sandwich at work.
Des Longstaff, 39, has now been diagnosed with advanced stage four oesophageal adenocarcinoma, an aggressive cancer in the food pipe that has spread to his liver. He was told the cancer is terminal and has an estimated life expectancy of 12 months, something landscape contactor Mr Longstaff who hopes to prolong his life to spend more time with his son who is five.
According to Cancer Research UK, it typically cannot be cured and Mr Longstaff is now looking at other ways to stay alive for as long as possible.
Symptoms
He told BristolLive: “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?” Mr Longstaff then went to a doctor, who recommended an endoscopy. But before this happened he threw up blood and later noticed blood in his stool.
He was ordered to go to hospital immediately where a 35cm tumour was found in his lower oesophagus on Christmas Eve. Mr Longstaff had hoped to have keyhole surgery to remove the tumour. But a subsequent scan revealed the cancer spread to his liver, meaning choices are limited.
Treatment
Mr Longstaff started immunotherapy which is to train white blood cells to attack the cancer. He is also on another form of chemotherapy. But he added: “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 still hope for Mr Longstaff after his mum Tracy set up a GoFundMe to raise money to send him to Germany to explore new treatments. She added: “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 five-year-plus life expectancy.”
The page already raised more than £31,000 and explained the 10-day procedure that costs €52,000 (about £43,000). Mr Longstaff 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.” Mr Longstaff said it was his last chance and thanked people who made 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.” Since being launched, £31,966 has been raised out of a target of £43,000 as of Saturday.
To view the GoFundMe campaign, click here.
