Cancer survivor's bet nets £10,000 prize

Published on Saturday 30 May 2009 19:48

A MAN diagnosed with terminal cancer has told how he stands to cash in and collect another £5,000 in winnings – after betting he would stay alive.

Jon Matthews, 59, refused to accept his doctor's prognosis that he would be dead within months and decided to bet against it. Matthews, from Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, was diagnosed with mesothelioma – a cancer linked to asbestos – in April 2006.

Keen to defy doctors' predictions that he would not see in 2007, he placed a 100 stake with odds of 50/1 with bookmaker William Hill that he would remain alive until 1 June, 2008. This won him 5,000. He also made a further bet of the same amount and odds that he would survive until 1 June this year, which is set to net him another 5,000 tomorrow.

And he has a third and final wager of 100 at 100/1 that he will survive until 1 June, 2010, which would see him gain 10,000. Matthews, a widower, said: "I think I'm the first person in the world to bet on my own life."

He added that the longest doctors at Harefield Hospital in Middlesex had heard of anyone surviving mesothelioma after diagnosis was 25 months. "I reached 26 months a year ago and on 1 June this year I will have reached 38 months," he said.

"I know I'm going to die and I have no real need for money, so it will mostly go to worthy causes."