When Philip Collins was told that he had cancer and had just six months to live, he quit his job, cashed in his pension and bought himself a powerful motorcycle. He was determined to enjoy the time left to him.

When he was still alive a year later his doctors conducted a re-examination and admitted that there had been a mistake. The inoperable “tumour” on his gall bladder was a relatively harmless abscess.

Far from being delighted at his unexpected reprieve Mr Collins, 59, was devastated. He had spent his life savings and the powerful drugs that the doctors prescribed to keep him alive as long as possible had destroyed his health.

Mr Collins, now 61, had even planned his own funeral. As well as buying the Triumph motorcycle, he had bought his wife Isabel a new car so that she would have transport after he had gone. The couple spent an emotional “last” Christmas together.

Two years later Mr Collins is seeking compensation from the NHS for his ordeal, which he said had left him “an absolute wreck” due to the quantity of drugs he had needlessly taken.

Mr Collins, of Yetminster, Dorset, said: “When they told me I had cancer I knew I had a chance to do everything I wanted. I was a fit man and a keen motorcyclist. I still had a lot of working life left in me.

“When they told me I did not have cancer, it knocked me off balance. Now I cannot do anything. I’m an absolute wreck. If you have spent two years thinking you are going to die, then you are told you are not, it knocks you backwards.”

Mrs Collins, 62, said that the couple were delighted that the original diagnosis was a mistake, but added that it had ruined her husband’s life. She said: “We just don’t understand how it could have happened. They obviously didn’t look at the tests closely enough. I never used to believe in suing or compensation or anything like that.”

Mr Collins’s ordeal began when he lost his appetite suddenly and suffered weight loss and anaemia.

He was given a scan at Dorset County Hospital in Dorchester that revealed he had an abnormal gall bladder and liver. Further tests led doctors to believe that he had cancer and they told the the couple that he had only six months to live.

Mrs Collins said: “He was bitter and tearful but he took the news that he was going to die calmly. We took £18,000 out of a pension and he bought the Triumph motorbike, which had always been his dream. He even told me he wanted his coffin to be carried on the back of it at his funeral, which he had arranged.”

After a grim “last Christmas” his 60th birthday came and went. Three weeks after a second CT scan doctors told Mr Collins that although he still had cancer, it was not terminal. Two weeks later he was told that he was suffering not from cancer, but from an abscess.

Dorset County Hospital’s chief executive, Jan Bergman, has written to Mr Collins disclosing that the initial diagnosis was made before all the test results had been examined. He said that practices had been reviewed to ensure that surgeons looked at all information before reaching a conclusion.

Mr Collins is now being treated at Yeovil District Hospital.

A spokesman for Dorset County Hospital said: “We have been in contact with Mr and Mrs Collins about the conclusions of our investigation.”

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