Super Surgeons: A Chance at Life – Documentary on Bishop’s Stortford family man’s cancer journey features on Channel 4 series

A Bishop’s Stortford father living with a rare form of cancer that affects just two men a year in the UK will be featured in Channel 4 documentary series Super Surgeons: A Chance at Life at 9pm tonight (Tuesday July 9).

Jonathan Muggleton, 48, of Thorley Park, is facing a race against time to raise £350,000 for life-saving treatment in America having exhausted all treatments on the NHS.

He was diagnosed with mucosal melanoma, an aggressive cancer that forms in the mucus layer beneath the skin’s surface. There is no cure and the survival rate past five years is just 14%. His only hope is to receive pioneering cell replacement therapy that could stall the advance of the disease.

Jonathan’s family – including wife Rebecca and children Amelia,11, and Charlie, 9 – are throwing everything at their gofundme appeal in a desperate attempt to raise the funds. With the help of family and friends, they have so far generated £83,362.

The self-confessed fitness fanatic, who grew up in Matching Green and attended Bishop’s Stortford College, said he took part in the documentary to “give something back and help others”.

It has charted his journey from diagnosis in September 2020 to ground-breaking surgery last September, when doctors at London’s Royal Marsden Hospital removed a tumour from his lung using robotics technology.

“The crew followed us for six months, pre and post surgery. They came to our house and filmed me out cycling,” he told the Indie back in May.

“I initially thought ‘Never in a million years would I want this’, and then it becomes very public all of a sudden, but it’s almost like therapy.

“I thought ‘This is bigger than me. If I can help other people and give something back, that’s what it’s all about’.”