Sick Iraq war veteran dies after being given smoker's cancerous lungs in transplant

Death sentence: Corporal Matthew Millington was given cancer

An Iraq war veteran died after a hospital transplant gave him a pair of cancerous lungs donated by a smoker.

Matthew Millington, 31, a corporal in the Queen's Royal Lancers, had the operation to save him from an incurable lung condition.

But the donated organs - from someone who smoked 30 to 50 roll-up cigarettes a day - gave him cancer.

Papworth Hospital in Cambridge, which carried out the transplant, said early X-rays on the organs did not find any sign of cancer.

In fact it had been missed. The tumour was discovered only after six months. Drugs to ensure Mr Millington's body accepted the new organs actually sped up its spread.

The soldier from Stoke-on-Trent was given radiotherapy but finally died at home in February last year.

Mr Millington served in the Army from the day of his 16th birthday, but while in Iraq in 2005 he began to struggle with his breathing. In 2006 he was found to have a serious condition and was told he would die in two years unless he had a transplant.

The soldier was relieved when a donation became available in April 2007 - but it turned out to be a further death sentence. His widow Siobhan said: 'All he wanted was another set of lungs. He said, "They've given me a dud pair."'

At an inquest, North Staffordshire Coroner Ian Smith recorded Mr Millington had died from 'complications of transplant surgery'.

Papworth defended its use of smokers' lungs in transplants and said all organs were screened rigorously.