Father, 84, who spent his £50,000 life savings after being told he had just three months to live is still alive... 15 YEARS later

Ron Adams, 84, a former builder, was told he had incurable lung cancer within three months in October 2002 so immediately went to the shops and bought a £20,000 Mercedes CLK

A father who went on a £50,000 spending spree after being told he would die from terminal cancer within three months is still alive - 15 years later.

Ron Adams, 84, a former builder, was told he had incurable lung cancer in October 2002 so immediately went to the shops.

He bought a £20,000 Mercedes CLK, dubbed 'the cancer car', £3,650 on seven koi carp fish and hundreds of pounds on a collection of 507 pre-war model cars.

Mr Adams also bought a driveway for his wife of 62 years, Shelia, 82. Pictured is one of the classic cars he keeps in there, a 1968 Camaro

The father-of-two, of Marston Green, Birmingham, had approached his GP with a persistent cough, before being referred to Solihull hospital for further tests in 2002.

He said: 'They sent for me. They had the results of my chest X-ray and felt it would be best if I brought someone with me.

'That got me thinking. I took my eldest son Mark - he's now 55. I was shown to a consulting room and there were two of them.

'They said it was cancer of the lung and it was terminal, that there was nothing they could do for me.

'I remember asking 'Can you slow it down?'. Then I asked how long I'd got, and they said around three months.'

Mr Adams said he was especially shocked by the diagnosis because he 'didn't even feel unwell'.

The father-of-two, of Marston Green, Birmingham, had approached his GP with a persistent cough, before being referred to Solihull hospital for further tests in 2002. Pictured: His collection of model cars