WHEN father-of-two Tom Tilley was diagnosed with cancer of the stomach and oesophagus, it was a small price to pay for his family to delay Christmas by six months.

Tom, now 34, of Blackburn, was on a life support machine on Christmas Day 1996, after major surgery to remove a third of his stomach and two-thirds of his gullet, so he missed the festivities.

Despite the warm weather and distinct lack of snow, girlfriend Michaela Alston organised a huge family party complete with Father Christmas the following June, to make it up to him and the couple's two children.

Michaela said: "He missed Christmas that year.

"We had plans that the children would be able to come and see him and wish him happy Christmas in the hospital, but then he was on life support and was completely out of it.

"So we did it all for him later, once he had finished chemotherapy.

"When we phoned and asked for Father Christmas to come along in June, they thought we were mad, but it was a great day."

That positive attitude helped Tom through months of tests before being told he was in remission.

But a scare recently reminded him of what he had been through, when he was told he needed another operation to find out if the cancer had come back. It was an anxious time.

"I nearly didn't have the operation, because I couldn't bear the thought of going through it all again," he said.

I just didn't have the strength. I think if I had been told I had got it again, I wouldn't have made it this time."

Had East Lancashire already had a 'magic eye' ultrasound endoscope, Tom would have been saved the trauma of going through an operation he did not need.

Surgeons would have been able to use the scanner to detect whether the cancer was back quickly and painlessly without surgery. Because the equipment was not available, he was forced to go through an operation for, what turned out to be, no reason.

Michaela said: "This new scanner would have meant he wouldn't have had to have the operation.

"They would have been able to tell him really easily and quickly whether he had it again or not.

"It would have made life so much easier.

"Having said that, to be told there was nothing there after the operation was really the best news we could have had."

It was a major milestone for Tom to make it through to that first June, after he was initially given four weeks to live following the diagnosis of cancer.

He had been unable to swallow properly for two months, and had resorted to living on chicken soup, before collapsing at work.

An examination at the hospital revealed Tom's worst fear - that he had cancer. It was a terrible moment for Tom, whose mother had died of breast cancer when he was just 13.

"I had been thinking it was cancer," said Tom. "When I first found out, it was a bombshell, even though I just knew it anyway. Everything just had to stop. I was told they wanted to operate on me as soon as possible. I was never told just how serious it was, although my doctor told Michaela.

"The doctor kept saying to me 'you're a young lad - you'll pull through this easily'. It kept me going.

"If he hadn't said that, I don't know whether I would have made it.

"I was more scared of the operation than anything. I had never been in hospital for anything and it was the fear of the unknown."

The diagnosis led to Tom, at 29, being given the dubious honour of being the youngest patient in East Lancashire with the disease, often known as the "old man's disease".

After surgery, Tom was put on life support for several days before being allowed home to his family two months later.

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