'From no hope, to 'it's gone'' - Terminally ill patient cancer free after revolutionary therapy

• ITV News Meridian's Richard Slee has been speaking to Allan Peters about his story.

When a former royalty protection officer was diagnosed with terminal cancer, he set to work putting his affairs in order and arranged his own funeral.

Allan Peters from Dorset even received a letter of condolence from his former employer, the newly crowned King Charles.

He started end of life care after being diagnosed with Lymphoma, but two years later Allan is totally cancer free.

He was one of the first patients to receive a revolutionary therapy, called Chimeric Antigen Receptor T cell therapy, CAR-T, at University Hospital Southampton.

Allan worked as a royal protection officer, spending nine years at the side of Diana and Prince Charles, and was starting to enjoy his retirement again when he became ill during the covid crisis.

The results of a scan took everyone by surprise, which shows he was riddled with cancer.

• Before being offered the new treatment, Allan Peters did not think there was much hope.

"They never showed me the scan at the beginning, and they didn't know what the disease was but they could see there was a lot of it.

"But in the meantime, [they said] 'here's some morphine and anti-sickness pills, go away and someone will be in touch'."

What followed was a year of chemotherapy, but the cancer quickly returned.

It meant, however, that he was eligible for the new treatment being offered - CAR T Cell Therapy which works well with aggressive cancers.

The immune cells from Allan's blood were modified and then reinfused to fight the disease.

Allan spent five weeks in hospital, after which he felt much better, and within a few months the scans showed that all the cancer was gone.

"The alternative wasn't really to be wished for, so any hope is welcome." "From originally no hope, to 'now it's gone', is hopefully good news for everybody."

Three weeks before Allan was diagnosed with cancer he had taken in Ukrainian refugee Olena and her two children.

"As soon as I got diagnosed I came home and I said to Olena 'Look I didn't bring you here to be my nanny or nurse or carer, I'll find you another home, someone else to look after you.

"Immediately without any thought she just said 'well you offered to help us so we want to stay and help you.'"

What Allan didn't know was that just a few weeks earlier, Olena's mother had died from bowel cancer.

When the war started, Olena moved in with her mother and father in a village that was then occupied by Russian soldiers.

It was while sheltering in a basement that Olena's mother died.

• Olena wanted to help Allan after her was diagnosed.

"Straight away I thought that I couldn't help my mother, so probably it's fate that brought me here to go through this, to help another person."

"I didn't want him to die, I wanted to do everything to keep him positive, to help with food, to feed him properly, I didn't want another kind person to die."

Allan received a handwritten message from the King, which came with a bottle of scotch.

"It is a bit devastating when it looks like there is no hope, but it's not necessarily the case.

"It can look really bad, but nowadays, they can do more things."

Not everyone is suitable for this newly available treatment, but Allan is now living a normal, healthy life.

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