How a geologist from Down Under saved a cancer patient who couldn't get any medical staff to dress a wound

In great pain and fearful for his worsening condition, John Tirebuck went to his GP’s twice, two different pharmacies, a clinic and rang a treatment centre number but couldn’t get anyone to clean up and change the weeping lesion on his back.

Bizarrely, on the second desperate visit to his doctor’s surgery in Billinge, it was a gold mine geologist visiting from Australia who stepped forward and came to the rescue after overhearing his conversation.

And not only did big-hearted Gareth Dickinson go to the 72-year-old’s home to change the dressing, he returned there on alternate days several times thereafter to repeat the process and now the wound looks to have healed.

John, who lives alone on Ashgrove Crescent, said he was deeply grateful to this good Samaritan, adding: “I feel for the first time for a long time that somebody finally cares if I live or die.

"Having been refused help six times by so-called medical professionals, I can say with some certainty that we can still rely on the compassion of strangers.”

John recently underwent surgery at St Helens and Knowsley Teaching Hospital for skin cancers known as basal cell carcinomas.

The procedure on his chest went well but the one on his left shoulderblade did not. Even tying shoelaces or making the bed puts a strain on the dissolving stitches.

Late last month he went back to hospital to pick up a prescription and mentioned to a nurse who was staffing the reception desk if he could have the back dressing replaced. Despite clearly being very busy, she kindly found time to do it, but warned John that in future he should go to his GP for such a procedure.

Barely able to see the wound in the mirror let alone reach it, John was powerless to treat himself, and several days later he realised that it had become discoloured and inflamed.

After the weekend the dressing was soaked as the lesion oozed liquid, so he went to Billinge Surgery in Recreation Drive to explain his dilemma only to be told there was no-one qualified to change a dressing and that he should go to a place called the Treatment Room.

He was given a phone number but because he didn’t feel up to driving to an unknown destination he thought he would try a pharmacy first, especially as there is a lot of advice currently that pharmacies should be used more instead of GP surgeries and hospitals, to ease the burden on those centres.

But he got the same response about the Treatment Room and was given the same number, although the staff member also suggested that he try Billinge Clinic. He first accidentally went to another pharmacy who again couldn't help him themselves but sent him across the road.

The reception area was shuttered but he could see several people operating phones and computers. One finally came free but said to John “No, I can only do feet”! and he was given the Treatment Room number again.

He phoned it but was stuck in an automated queue for half an hour telling him that he was “number two” in it, but it never changed.

Increasingly distressed, and with the hospital nurse’s advice ringing in his ears, he gave up on the call and went back to the GP’s to explain his plight when Gareth, who had been queueing behind him, piped up: “I’m a qualified first aider in an Australian gold mine, I could do that for you.”

John said: “I couldn’t believe that my fortunes had changed in such an obscure and random way. True to his word, Gareth walked me home, carefully removed the old dressing, which had by then disintegrated, cleaned the wound with TCP and applied a fresh dressing.

"If there is a God, he was looking after me that day.

"It turns out that Gareth is home, via Sri Lanka, for a family event. To give him his proper title he is an exploration geologist, currently expanding gold and copper mines in Australia.

"Who would have thought you need a degree in geology to change a glorified plaster?”

Gareth is indeed from Billinge but has lived Down Under for the past 15 years. He is currently back in Blighty for his parents’ golden wedding anniversary.

He said: “I was in the queue at the doctor’s and John was in front of me, talking to the receptionist, explaining that he needed this dressing on his back changing and he was suffering.

"The lady on the desk was telling him to ring the NHS helpline but there’s no point making phone calls: he needed the dressing changing.

"I am trained first aider so I said ‘I’ll do that: it’s not a big job.’

"A lot of people have helped me in the past when I have serious injuries so this was no big deal. When someone is suffering you try to reduce it.

"I have been back to re-dress the wound and it seems to have done the trick.”

Wigan Today contacted NHS Cheshire and Merseyside for a comment about John’s experience including information on anything he might have done differently to receive a positive response. But at the time of publication, no-one has come back to us.