DAVID Milton has had enough death warnings to last a lifetime.

Almost 20 years ago aged 47, he had a very good job, a flash car, plenty of girlfriends and not one but two detached houses.

But a hospital check-up revealed he had bone cancer – and doctors told him he had just six months to live.

Now, almost 20 years on, he is still here and thought to be one of the region’s longest-surviving cancer sufferers.

It was back in January 1993 his world was torn apart when he was taken to hospital suffering from chest pains.

Fortunately it turned out he was suffering nothing worse than work-related stress.

However, further tests revealed the 47-year-old was suffering from myeloma, more commonly known as bone marrow cancer.

He said: “The doctors told me my heart was okay but you now have between six months and a year to live. I felt stunned.”

So he did what any red-blooded male would do – packed in his job, bought a Jag and went to enjoy life in Thailand.

David, who was born in Hipperholme and brought up in Brighouse, added: “Twelve months later I was still very much alive but fast running out of money. I had to slow down.”

He returned to the UK and despite continuing to dice with death is now set to become one of Yorkshire’s longest surviving cancer sufferers in January.

Not that it was plain sailing. In 1999 his health started to deteriorate rapidly. He had to undergo chemotherapy and was told that if the treatment didn’t work then he could expect to live between two and eight weeks.

The next couple of years were particularly grim. In 2000, as others celebrated the new millennium, he was preparing for some of the most unpleasant months of his life.

Medics told him they were sending him to Leeds General Infirmary for an operation in February 2001 which left him in isolation for six weeks and entailed killing off all his bone marrow cells with very high levels of chemotherapy.

“I just wanted to die, it was awful,” said David of Sowerby Bridge.

“I had no immune system whatsoever. It was horrendous.”

Again he was told that he might have four to five years maximum but once more he lived through all the storm warnings.

He says: “The cancer has never gone away, it’s one of those diseases where no-one has ever been cured and it always resurfaces.

“I live month by month. I am in no immediate danger of dropping down dead but who can tell?

“Apart from three months in 2007 when I was discharged I have been involved in some kind of hospital treatment for the best part of 20 years.

“When I was first diagnosed I was devastated. I had everything going for me and didn’t want to admit there was anything wrong.”

But he has never felt an iota of self-pity and says meeting the love of his life, Lesley Suttle, has given him something to live for. Without her he says he is not sure he would have had the will-power to go on living.

And he says being involved in chess – he is a well-known figure in Huddersfield and Calderdale chess circles – gave him a vital distraction. He is a former player with Huddersfield Chess Club.

GP Dr Stuart Oliver, of Outlane, said: “For someone to live almost 20 years with myeloma is a very uncommon thing.

“To be in remission for 20 years is unusual.”

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