NIGEL Plunkett is not the picture of an ill man.

He chats happily to nurses whilst munching on a tuna and cucumber sandwich, his shirt collar obscuring the tracheostomy that allows him to breathe.

“I will have to wear this for life,” he said, at Thursday’s relaunch of Therapeutic Apheresis Services (TAS) at the Oxford NHS blood and transplant unit.

Mr Plunkett, from Sandhills, had lifesaving treatment at the TAS unit which is based at John Radcliffe.

The 65-year-old has a condition called acquired angioedema, which causes uncontrollable swelling of his arms, legs, hands and feet, leaving him unable to move them.

He is aware of just four other people in the UK with the condition, and 150 in the world.

Doctors implanted the blue tracheostomy into his neck in July last year, after it swelled to a size bigger than his head. It opens up his windpipe so he can breathe.

He said: “My life was saved because they managed to get me into hospital in time. I couldn’t breathe.

“I was shocked when I came around and realised I had survived.”

Any swelling above his shoulders could be life-threatening.

Mr Plunkett had to be wired up to a high-tech machine at the unit, which swaps bad blood and plasma for healthy donor blood and plasma. In ten days he had ten complete blood exchanges to remove the antibodies which triggered the swelling. After that he endured a course of chemotherapy.

He said: “I’ve also had abdominal swelling which crushes the colon. You get absolutely excruciating pains, loads. I’ve been told by women that they’re the equivalent to labour pains. I’ve needed morphine in the past to get over them.

“I have a very low quality of life. You’re just always waiting for the next attack which happen about every three days.”

Mr Plunkett, a lab assistant at the University of Oxford, has to inject himself with medication when he starts to swell.

He said: “You get a warning sign. You might get a skin rash and you know to start treating. I take my injection everywhere with me, it enables me to carry on working.”

Mr Plunkett was one of a handful of extraordinary patients at the relaunch, which saw the unit move into a brighter, more spacious room.