A man who was wrongly diagnosed with terminal cancer by the NHS travelled to America for a second opinion - only to be told he had a heart condition and could not fly back.

David West, 70, was told he had just weeks to live after being diagnosed with liver cancer.

But US doctors said his cancer was actually a serious heart condition - and said he was too ill to fly home.

Waiting times for the procedures he needed were between four and nine months in the NHS, and American doctors told him it was too risky to wait that long.

The retired Army engineer ended up spending £250,000 on treatment and travel and spent almost three years convalescing before he was able to come home.

He says he went abroad after NHS doctors told him he could not have a biopsy to confirm the diagnosis.

Instead he was given a form to claim end-of-life benefits from the Department of Work and Pensions.

This allowed him to claim Disability Living Allowance and Incapacity Benefit - a total of £800 a month.

But these were stopped were stopped because he was abroad for too long and he now faces losing his rented flat in Warminster, Wiltshire, where he has lived for 14 years.