Never give up: Man tells how he survived ground-breaking surgery after doctors said he was weeks from death

Adam Alderson, 37, from Preston-under-Scar in Wensleydale, North Yorkshire, is now one of just four people in the world to have survived the multiple organ transplant surgery in a bid to rid him of incredibly rare peritoneal cancer, pseudomyxoma peritonei (PMP).

• Read how 17-hour operation saved Adam's life here

Despite being put onto palliative care he refused to accept his bleak prognosis - and admits his doctors have credited his stubborn temperament as what made him survive.

Eighteen months after the surgery to remove the 10kg tumour which had embedded itself onto his abdominal organs, Mr Alderson is preparing not only to marry his fiancé Laura who has faced each of his health battles alongside him, but also to take part in the Mongol Rally.

He said: “It is a 15,000 mile trek across Europe and Asia with no fixed route, as long as you reach Mongolia. It is potentially dangerous, especially for me as if I get an infection or rejection it would be very serious.

The team tackling the Mongol Rally: Adam Alderson and Laura Blanchard with Liz Sheldon and Andy Smithson

“But I want to raise as much as I can for the charities that did so much for me – Macmillan and the Steve Prescott Foundation.”

Adam had suffered with bowel problems for many years, which had been misdiagnosed as irritable bowel syndrome, and it was only when he and Laura had embarked on a new life to Australia in 2011 that he realised it was something more serious.

Adam and Laura in Australia before his diagnosis

He said: “We had been in Australia for around 18 months when I was diagnosed with PMP. I was told it was very rare and had to get back home for treatment at the Christie Cancer Hospital in Manchester – a world leader in cancer treatment.

“It is hard to take in, but right from the moment I was diagnosed I knew I was going home to fight, not to die. We flew home in February 2013 and had my first appointment at the Christie the same month.”

Preparations were made for him to have an operation in the hope that the surgeons could remove as much of the tumour as possible. The debulking procedure would be coupled with washing the tumour in hot chemotherapy.

But when he came round from the operation he was told it had been too dangerous for it to be completed and there was nothing they could do.

“Just a few months earlier, I was looking forward to a life at the other side of the world, I was now told that I had as little as two years to live. I was only 35-years-old,” he said.

But Adam refused to accept that his life could be cut short and despite being extremely ill and weak, he researched treatments and surgeries around the world, and finally heard about an operation that former England rugby league player Steve Prescott, also a PMP patient, had undergone.

Steve Prescott

The operation was complicated and a world first ever to be performed; it required the removal of Steve's tumours followed by a multi-organ transplant.

The 32 hour operation was a success, but Steve died as a result of graft-versus-host-disease, a complication that can occur following transplants.

Despite concern from his doctors, Adam pushed to have the same surgery – and after a long battle, undergoing tests and waiting for a donor, he finally went under the knife in the summer of 2015.

The 17-hour operation required 30 people working shifts and resulted in the removal of a 10kg tumour and Adam’s stomach, small bowel, large bowel, pancreas, spleen, gall bladder, appendix, abdominal wall and most of his liver, before multiple abdominal organs were transplanted into him.

Not long afterwards, it was officially announced that the procedure had been a success.

Adam with Basingstoke surgeons Tom Cecil and Brendan Moran. He said: "These guys saved my life."

Adam said: “Now I want to give something back, to raise the profile of PMP and most importantly the belief that you should never give up.”

For further details and to follow the team on their next adventure like www.facebook.com/YorkshireYaks or see @YorkshireYaks on Twitter.