THE family of a loving dad who was handed a shock terminal cancer diagnosis say they are not yet ready to let him go and have launched a £90,000 fundraiser in a bid to pay for life-saving treatment.

Andrew Kyranides, from Benfleet, was diagnosed with a rare Neuroendocrine tumour in his stomach and gullet just four weeks ago at Southend Hospital. 

With the father-of-four originally experiencing no symptoms, the news came as a complete shock to wife, Karen Whittaker.

The 54-year-old said: “It all started when he had a pain in his stomach which lasted for a couple of weeks. He suffers from indigestion so we didn’t think too much of it.

“When it didn’t settle he went to the doctors who ran through potential symptoms he could have. He didn’t really have any of them, so they said it wasn’t likely to be cancer.”

But tragically an endoscopy located the rare cancer and found it had spread to his liver and lymph nodes. 

She added: “To say it was a shock to the system would be an understatement. He has now been offered palliative care chemotherapy at the age of 51-years-old, but we aren’t ready to let him go.

“It’s taken three weeks to sort treatment – he’s due to start Monday but he has rapidly deteriorated in that time. His pain is getting worse, he’s not eating properly and he’s having trouble swallowing.”

The devoted family have now widened their search for help for Andrew, and are hoping he will be accepted for immunotherapy or hyperthermia treatment at clinics in Spain or Germany and a Go Fund Me page has been set up to pay the costs.

Karen added: “He always looked after me when I was unwell. I had both my kidneys removed and have to do daily dialysis, so he was my kidney donor.

“I had a stroke so I couldn’t be on the transplant list, but it’s something they’re talking about doing again which is now obviously difficult because of Andrew’s condition.

“I will do anything to help him –this could extend his life. Words can’t express how grateful we are for the support, this means everything to us.”

To donate, visit the family's Go Fund Me page.