STEVE Prescott underwent a pioneering multi-visceral transplant in a final act of defiance against the rare cancer he had battled against for more than seven years.

Three weeks before the 39-year-old died surgeons at Churchill Hospital in Oxford removed over 90 per cent of the pseudomyxoma peritonei tumours that were in his abdomen.

The operation, involving the transplant of multiple organs, took place over October 15 and 16. It lasted 32 hours and Steve pulled through.

However, on November 9, he died as a result of graft-versus-host-disease, a complication that can follow a transplant.

Details of the operation were revealed by Mike Denning, the chairman of the Steve Prescott Foundation, as he delivered a eulogy at Monday’s funeral.

Mike said: “The one in a million disease he had fought so hard for so long had all but gone.

“Steve always said to us that pseudomyxoma peritonei would never beat him and it didn’t. In the end it was complications from the transplant that took Steve away from us.”

The cancer battler’s treatment in Oxford was known to a close circle of family and friends but it was not reported publicly as relatives and the hospital had requested privacy and confidentiality.

It is believed he was the first pseudomyxoma patient in the world to undergo such a transplant.

Steve’s condition had deteriorated from October 2012 when he began suffering more frequent bowel obstructions and admissions to hospital.

By the middle of 2013 he had been transferred to Hope Hospital in Salford where, after being told his bowel was not functioning properly, he was placed on an artificial feeding line.

But, as Mike said, “Steve refused to give up” and he began researching alternative treatments and asked specialists about a potential transplant.

It was then that he was put in touch with the team at Oxford.

Mike added: “Stephen knew that without surgery he would not survive much longer.

“He was given hope. He made a decision with his family to go for it.”

He stressed the immense gratitude that the Prescott family have for the team in Oxford, which was led by Mr Anil Vaidya, for giving Steve the chance of life he craved.

The family are also taking comfort that the lessons learned from the transplant would help others in the future.

A number of the doctors who had treated Steve attended the funeral service in Lowe House Church on Monday.

The family has publicly thanked all the medics – from the Christie Hospital, Manchester; Basingstoke Hospital, where he had vital surgery in 2006 that extended his life; Whiston Hospital; Salford’s Hope Hospital and Churchill Hospital, Oxford – for their care.