Soldier died after lung transplant with cancerous lungs of 50-a-day smoker

A soldier given a "life-saving" NHS transplant died after finding out he had got the cancer-ridden lungs of a 50-a-day smoker.

Matthew Millington, 31, died 10 months after the operation, following diagnosis of lung disease while serving in Iraq.

It was not until six months after the transplant that doctors found the deadly tumour - growing more aggressively than normal because of the specialist post-op drugs Mr Millington was on.



Just four months later, he was dead. And despite the medical mistakes, he would have been banned from a second op as he had cancer. Papworth Hospital, Cambridge, has admitted that a string of blunders led to the death of Mr Millington, of Biddulph, Staffs.

The coroner ruled the Queen's Royal Lancer died in 2007 from "complications of transplant surgery and immunosuppressive drug treatment".

His dad Lester, 64, said he did not blame the hospital, but added: "It turns out that 51 per cent of all organs for transplants originate from smokers, which we didn't know at the time."