A DAD-of-five has been given months to live after the NHS refused to give him a liver transplant, he claims.
Medics found that Don Jackson was living with a 3cm cancerous tumour during an MRI scan on his liver in June last year.
Don Jackson (pictured above) has been given just months to live and needs a liver transplantSWNS
SWNSHe is now trying to raise £80,000 to pay for an operation in Turkey which he says could save his life[/caption]
He said that doctors told him it would take two months to get a replacement liver.
But by Christmas, the musician said he was still waiting on a transplant.
In January, scans showed that the tumour had grown and that a second lump had appeared on his liver.
Don, who is in his 50s, claims that medics refused to do the surgery as the cancerous tumour had become too big.
He is now trying to raise £80,000 to fly to Turkey for lifesaving treatment, after being just given three months to live.
Don, from York, said every time he went to the doctors, they would tell him he would have to wait another week for a new liver.
“It’s ridiculous. I have been left to die by the UK, and I’ve needed to go to another country and find £80,000 to try and get some help.
“I’ve got five kids and they’ve been going through hell while this has been going on. One minute I’m going to die, and another minute I can maybe survive,” he told YorkshireLive.
Don fell sick in November 2021 and was diagnosed with ascites, a condition where fluid collects around the abdomen.
Medics said that this had been caused by cirrhosis of the liver, triggered by hepatitis C, which is a known cause of the cancerous cell.
In August he was put on a waitlist for a new liver and was promised a transplant in three months, with the average wait time being 65 days.
After discovering the second tumour in December, with the first having now grown to 3.6cm, Don claims medics said he couldn’t have a transplant due to the ‘Milan Criteria’.
This states that a liver cancer patient shouldn’t have one if there are two tumours and one measures more than 3cm.
Don said: “I said to the doctors ‘So you are going to let me die and leave my five kids without a father because of this stupid law?’ They said ‘There is nothing else we can do’, and they took me off the transplant list at Leeds.”
Don launched an appeal which was rejected and in February, he flew to Turkey to have tests done, waiting just ten minutes for a scan.
A spokesperson at the hospital where Don was treated in the UK said he was treated within the ‘nationally agreed guidelines’.
“The safety of our patients is our top priority. Our specialist clinical teams individually assess the suitability of each patient waiting for a liver transplant.
“The eligibility criteria for liver transplantation in the UK is based on nationally agreed guidelines, administered through the Liver Advisory Group, and aligned with international practice.”
So far Don has raised over £40,000 of his £80,000 goal.
The 9 signs of liver cancer you must know
Liver cancer may not have any symptoms, or they might be hard to spot, the NHS states.
The symptoms are the same if the liver cancer starts in the liver (primary liver cancer) or spreads from another part of the body (secondary liver cancer), guidance states.
Signs of the illness can include:
your skin or the whites of your eyes turn yellow (jaundice), you may also have itchy skin, darker pee and paler poo than usual
loss of appetite or losing weight without trying to
feeling tired or having no energy
feeling generally unwell or having symptoms like flu
a lump in the right side of your tummy
Other symptoms can affect your digestion, such as:
feeling or being sick
pain at the top right side of your tummy or in your right shoulder
symptoms of indigestion, such as feeling full very quickly when eating
a very swollen tummy that is not related to when you eat