AN ex-soldier who is suffering excruciating pain has spoken out after a vital operation was cancelled.

Keith Davidson, 35, from Darlington, said he broke down and wept after nurses told him a pain-relieving operation could not go ahead.

He is angry that after waiting for about eight weeks in agony, he was told that a shortage in medical supplies would mean the operation would have to be postponed.

The father-of-two kept his 10am appointment at Bishop Auckland General Hospital last Thursday, expecting to have surgery to insert a metal plate in his lower spine the following day.

But after a five-hour wait he was told at 3pm that the operation could not take place.

Mr Davidson has had a serious back problem for years but it became acute last December.

"I got really bad around Christmas. I kept collapsing because of the intensive pain in my back and legs," said Mr Davidson, who served in the Army for nine years, including a six-month tour of duty in Northern Ireland.

Since a scan showed that a disc at the base of his spine is shattered he has been pressing for immediate surgery.

Despite being admitted to Darlington Memorial Hospital on two occasions as an emergency patient, he only received a date for his operation about eight weeks ago.

"I don't know how I made it because I was in such pain," said Mr Davidson, who can only hobble slowly with the aid of a walking stick.

"When they told me I would have to come back for the operation I just broke down and cried," he said.

Now Mr Davidson faces a 12-day wait for surgery which he hopes will put an end to his ordeal.

"I can feel the throbbing in my back all the time. The pain in the backs of my legs is really unbearable," he said.

A spokeswoman for South Durham Health Care NHS Trust said: "We are sorry that his operation has been postponed and we can understand how upsetting this is for him."

Operation cancellation rates are said to be running at less than one per cent at the South Durham trust.