SURGEONS who saved the life of an Abingdon man 39 years ago rejoined him and his wife to celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary.

Terry Cheverton, 72, has never lost touch with Patrick Beasley, Andrew Freeland and Tom Heyworth after they performed a major throat cancer operation at the Radcliffe Infirmary, Oxford, when he was just 33.

The complex operation involved taking flesh from Mr Cheverton’s shoulder and thighs to reconstruct a new throat.

He has used an electronic aid to speak ever since.

Almost four decades on, the three surgeons, now retired, were reunited with Mr Cheverton and wife Jennie to celebrate their Golden Wedding anniversary at the Bowyer Arms, Radley, on Saturday.

It was the first time that Mr Beasley, 73, had met Mr Cheverton since moving to another hospital in Exeter in the 1970s.

He said: “It is such a delight seeing him so perky, trim and fit.

“This is such a special case. We have had Christmas cards from Terry and Jenny every year, and we had to come up today to see them in the flesh.

“He was very young for throat cancer, which is normally seen in heavy smokers when they are much older.”

Mrs Cheverton, 71, of Parsons Mead, said: “It means an awful lot to us for them to come here because Terry would not be here if it was not for them.

“It was just the way life was and when you had problems you just pulled together and dealt with it together.

“We have been through thick and thin together and we came through it together.

“We have had our problems but we stuck by each other.”

And Mr Cheverton added: “Fifty years is a real achievement, especially with the problems we have had.

“Our secret has been to be open with other, and share and share alike.

“Everything we have done and everything we have had, we have always shared.”

Mr Cheverton used to work at the Pressed Steel factory in Cowley and then at the MG plant in Abingdon.

The couple met at a social club while Mr Cheverton was doing his national service at Wheatley military camp and their first date was at Oxford’s George Street cinema.

They raised £540 for Helen and Douglas House children’s hospice at their anniversary party.

bwilkinson@oxfordmail.co.uk