Transplant is make or break for cancer sufferer

Apr 19 2009 by Angela Wormald, Sunday Sun

SEVEN times the hospital consultant told him the cancer is back . . . and time after time Tony Ferguson fought it off.

Now the dad-of-two is praying a bone marrow transplant might end his 14-year nightmare and finally rid him of Hodgkin’s Lymphoma which has haunted him since 1995.

Without next month’s surgery doctors have warned he may not live to see the end of the year.

And Tony – who was first diagnosed when he was 33 – remains apprehensive as his donor is not a perfect match, meaning there is only a 50per cent chance of success.

He made the difficult decision to go ahead, despite being told there is a 20pc chance he may not survive the operation, and a 30pc chance of him rejecting the marrow.

Tony, who shares a home in Ryton, Gateshead, with his wife Christine, 44, and sons Daniel, 17, and Anthony, 22, was a fit and healthy man who loved to go to the gym several times a week, and worked as a stonemason, when he was first struck down with the cancer of the lymphatic system.

He had carried on working throughout his illness until January, as it keeps his mind active and gave him the strength to fight back.

And as Tony, 47, awaits the transplant after a donor was found in Italy, he has still found the time to think of others and is urging folk to join the bone marrow register.

He said: “I was very fit because my job involved a lot of heavy lifting, but this kind of cancer affects anyone at any age.”

Christine, who works for Newcastle Building Society, said: “We want to raise awareness so that others can join the Anthony Nolan Register.

“When Tony first fell ill, they thought he had a strangulated muscle in his neck, because his work involved heavy lifting.

“Then he was told it could be a swollen thyroid gland.

“The lump was the size of a cricket ball in his neck, it was really worrying. Then Tony developed an itch on his legs and feet, which we later found out was a symptom of Hodgkins Lymphoma, because it affects your nerves.