05 February 2024 , 22:36
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A Britain's Got Talent star has revealed he has just 12 months to live after being diagnosed with a rare form of cancer.
Baptist minister Allan Finnegan shot to fame in 2020 after reaching the semi-finals of the ITV talent show with his stand-up comic act, which had the judges such as Simon Cowell and Amanda Holden in stitches.
But two years ago, the 56-year-old from Liverpool began to notice a problem with his eyesight and went to the doctors to have it checked out. It was then he received the devastating news he had tumours in both his eyes. While one wasn’t deemed to be serious, the other was ocular melanoma, an extremely form of cancer that affects the eye.
Though he had treatment, tests revealed he had a certain type of gene that meant there was a strong chance of the cancer returning and spreading to his liver. Doctors continued to monitor Allan, but tragically he received the news he never wanted to hear.
Baptist minister Allan Finnegan shot to fame as a stand-up comic on Britain's Got TalentSpeaking to the Liverpool Echo, the married dad-of-two said: “I got diagnosed with eye cancer two years ago in December, which I'd never heard of. I was treated just after Christmas that year.
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"It went well but the biopsy looked at my genes - if you’ve got a certain type of gene, there’s quite a high chance of cancer returning, and when it does, it usually is in the liver. Then in December last year, something showed up. I had to go back. It confirmed it had spread. I went to a consultant just after Christmas. He confirmed it was untreatable.”
Allan has now been given a life expectancy of just 12 months and the news has been hard to take for his wife Joyce, daughters Beccy and Rachael, and his mum Linda. He said: "Watching my wife and kids cry, seeing other people cry, that makes me more emotional.” Maintaining his humour, he joked: “When I think about it, I realise I need to put more things in place, like decorating the hall.”
He revealed his symptoms included the vision in his left eye going slightly darker and he began to see flashes. Medics originally found something in his right eye, but he kept saying there was something in his left. Then came his cancer diagnosis.
Allan with his family, including wife Joyce, daughters Beccy and Rachael and grandson Albie (Go Fund Me)Sadly because of his illness, Allan has had to take time away from both his comedy and his congregation. Because his cancer affected his eyes he was unable to drive for a while, which meant he missed gigs. In turn, this knocked his confidence and he revealed he has only done 10 gigs in two years as a result.
But his main focus at the moment is spending as much time with his family as possible, including the youngest member, grandson Albie, who is just five months old.
There is potential treatment out there for Allan, such as chemosaturation therapy, a treatment which ‘saturates’ the whole liver and targets tumours, but sadly it isn’t available on the NHS and costs £50,000 a go.
Allan has been told he needs at least three of these treatments, totalling £150,000, to extend his life expectancy, so his only option was to start a Go Fund Me page to try and raise some money to pay for it.
He explained: “It's £50,000 per treatment and I need three, but if I could get one it would help like. After running out of options, I started a Go Fund Me. I didn’t expect to get much, but it did take off. It raised £25,000 on the first day. It massively surprised me. One of the things that made me think about not doing it is that you might realise people don't like you. That could make you even more depressed.”
Currently, over £34,000 has been raised towards his £50,000 target. Allan said: “It’s such a big amount. There’s a cost of living crisis, so it's quite humbling. It’s quite emotional to see it going up so quickly. I know some of the people who have given me £5 or £10. It's quite humbling to be on the receiving end. I really did not expect it. At the start, I knew the people who were donating, but now there’s people I don't even know who are donating. I'm blown away.” You can donate to Allan’s Go Fund Me page here