Terminally ill cancer patient treated at Doncaster hospital dies after Covid cancels surgery

Adrian Rogers, 46, was told his stage four bowel cancer had become terminal last April as he waited for an op – but health bosses said it was ‘too risky’ as the Covid-19 virus swept across the country.

Mr Rogers, from Retford, was being treated at Sheffield’s Royal Hallamshire Hospital but was transferred to Doncaster Royal Infirmary as coronavirus took hold.

Now his widow Amanda has said that her husband lost his battle with cancer last month.

Posting on a fundraising page set up to help Adrian receive life prolonging drug Avastin, the 48-year-old said her husband and stepdad to her three children had died in February.

She wrote: “Three weeks ago my gorgeous husband Adrian passed away. He became very poorly very quickly and sadly passed away on February 27, 2021.

“I would like to thank each and everyone of you for helping us with Adrian's battle, on behalf of myself and Adrian.

“He was totally overwhelmed by everybody's kindness which enabled him to have Avastin, which he otherwise wouldn't be able to have.

“To the world he was one person but to me he was my world. Thank you again for all your love.”

The news comes just six months after Adrian first began a course of Avastin - a drug that could have potentially helped him get back to an operable state.

The drug is administered alongside chemotherapy , with chemo killing the tumours and Avastin designed to prevent them from returning.

The treatment costs £600 a fortnight but the family managed to raise over £32,000 through a GoFundMe page, allowing Adrian to begin the Avastin treatment last September.

Speaking to the Daily Mail, she said: 'He was still on the Avastin treatment and we thought it was all going well. He was having blood tests and his tumour numbers were going back down.

'But then at the beginning of February he just started going downhill. It was a total shock - it all seemed to happen in about two weeks before he passed away. It was really, really sudden.'

'He was having it done at the Royal Hallamshire Hospital in Sheffield but because of Covid they said he could no longer do it there.

'So we had to transfer his treatment to Doncaster Royal Infirmary.

'But because they don't usually do the Avastin treatment there, the drug had to be transferred from Sheffield to Doncaster, so there was a bit of a break in his treatment.

'We're not sure whether his tumour count went back up during this time, because he didn't have any blood tests at that time. So we can't know for sure.'

In August last year he said: 'I feel like the government left us high and dry.

'There have still been other illnesses that have needed treating during this time, too - not just Covid.'

When Covid hit, a hospital board took the decision that it would be 'too risky' to proceed with Adrian's surgery at Manchester Royal Hospital.