A CANCER patient is on his way to Mexico for pioneering treatment after millionaire Sir Richard Branson stepped in with £3,600 worth of airline tickets.

British doctors said there was nothing they could do for Carl Grace after cancer of the oesophagus spread to his lungs despite intensive chemotherapy.

The 40-year-old father-of-two started an appeal to raise the £8,000 cost of the trip.

Yesterday, he received a letter personally signed by Sir Richard offering the flight tickets.

Mr Grace, of Filching Road, Eastbourne, and his wife Loretta are flying out from Heathrow today in a last-ditch bid to beat the disease.

Mr Grace, who works with special needs children at St Mary's School,

Wrestwood Road, Bexhill, will spend two months

at a pioneering clinic in Tijuana run by American doctor Hulda Clark, who boasts a 95 per cent success rate in treating advanced cancers with a revolutionary drug-free combination of diet and complimentary medicine.

Mr Grace is confident doctors in Mexico will be able to cure him in a course of treatment lasting two months.

He has so far raised £4,750 towards the £8,000 cost but, despite the shortfall, the clinic has booked him in on condition the rest of the money is raised during his stay. Mr Grace, father of Mary, 22, and Anne, 21, said an article in the Argus highlighting his plight helped boost the appeal and he is now hoping readers will rally round once again for the final push.

He said: "The Royal Marsden Hospital in London said there was nothing more they could do for me, but this is my life on the line.

"Getting the letter personally signed by Richard Branson was absolutely marvellous. My emotions are all over the place trying to get things together.

"I am so pleased I am going. I cannot believe it. The earlier they can treat me the more chance I have got.

"I really want to say a big thank you to people because they have really helped but we have got to keep the money coming in while I am out there.

"I was initially going for two weeks but my tumour is growing and it is now going to be two months. They kill off the cancer cells in two weeks and reduce the tumour in two months.

"If this treatment works I will be able to help other people when I get back."

Mr Grace and his wife are flying to San Francisco by Virgin, then on to San Diego before catching a bus to Mexico.

Donations should be sent to the Trustees of Mr C Grace, Mexico Treatment, Royal Bank of Scotland, Gildredge Road, Eastbourne.

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