Man notices strange symptom while eating sandwich, now has few month to live: ‘Am I not chewing it properly’

A 39-year-old father was diagnosed with stage four oesophageal cancer after having trouble swallowing a sandwhich.

What seemed like a routine meal turned into a life-changing moment for Des Longstaff, 39. Struggling to swallow a bacon and sausage sandwich, he sought medical help—only to be diagnosed with advanced stage-four oesophageal adenocarcinoma, an aggressive cancer that has spread to his liver, reported the Mirror.

He visited a doctor, who advised him to undergo an endoscopy.(Pexel)

The landscape contractor, determined to prolong his time with his five-year-old son, is now exploring alternative treatments to fight the disease. According to Cancer Research UK, oesophageal cancer at this stage is typically incurable, but Longstaff is seeking every possible option to extend his life.

Recalling the moment he first noticed something was wrong, he told BristolLive: “I am a landscaper by trade, and I was doing a job for one of my friends when his partner 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?’”

Diagnosis

Following this incident, Longstaff visited a doctor, who advised him to undergo an endoscopy. However, before the procedure could take place, he began vomiting blood and later noticed blood in his stool. He was immediately sent to the hospital, where a 35cm tumour was discovered in his lower oesophagus on Christmas Eve.

Initially, he had hoped for keyhole surgery to remove the tumour, but further scans revealed that the cancer had already spread to his liver, severely limiting his treatment options.

Longstaff has since begun immunotherapy to help his body’s white blood cells fight the cancer, along with another form of chemotherapy. However, he acknowledges that these treatments are not curative. “It is palliative, and it is to keep me comfortable so I don’t die straight away,” he said.

“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.”

His mother, Tracy, has launched a GoFundMe campaign to raise money for treatment in Germany, where he hopes to receive specialised care. “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,” she wrote.

The fundraiser has already collected over £31,000, with the targeted amount set at £43,000. The proposed treatment, which costs €52,000 (approximately ₹46.5 lakh), involves a combination of therapies aimed at targeting the cancerous cells in his liver.

Longstaff remains hopeful about the medical approach in Germany, explaining, “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.”

Detailing the treatment plan, he shared, “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 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 a…