Man spends his life savings after being wrongly told he only has three months to live

A comedian was told he had three months to live by doctors and promptly set about completing his 'bucket list' - only to be told eight weeks later that he was far from kicking the bucket. When Dave Ismay was told booze had left him with deadly liver cirrhosis and that he had just months to live, he was baffled, having never been a particularly heavy drinker. But faced with the devastating diagnosis, the former TV comic - who performed for 20 years with his best friend legendary funnyman Bob Monkhouse - decided there was still much he had left to do.

He immediately started a 'bucket list' - a list of things to do before he kicked the bucket - only to find that 10 weeks later doctors had got his diagnosis very wrong. Dave did not have cirrhosis of the liver caused by alcohol, but in fact was suffering from a treatable hereditary condition called haemochromatosis; an overload of iron in his blood.



Dave, 64, from Ashby-de-la-Zouch in Leiceistershire, said: 'To be told you only have three months left to live really focuses your mind and brings everything into perspective. All the things that you said you were going to do but never did suddenly seem really important. When I got back from the doctors the first thing I did was sit down and write my bucket list - the list of things I wanted to do while I was still around.'

Ten weeks after his initial earth-shattering diagnosis, liver biopsy results revealed he was suffering from hereditary haemochromatosis - a treatable condition which leaves too much iron in the blood. The condition can lead to permanent liver damage and other health issues, but if caught early enough this damage is reversible. The treatment involves draining the body of blood until the condition stabilises.