Hay-on-Wye’s ‘Chef on the Run’ has spoken of his battle with the health system to save his leg from amputation.

Mike Carnell, who runs the Old Stable Tea Room and award-winning Chef on the Run food company, suffers from the bone-wasting condition chronic osteomyelitis and needs a complex operation to save his left leg.

This month 43-year-old Mike finally secured a referral for the operation to be performed by the NHS in Bristol, paid for by the Powys Teaching Health Board. But the dad-of-two, who ran marathons before his condition grew worse, is concerned it took six months of struggle to find a hospital willing to perform the surgery.

Health trusts in Herefordshire and Powys were both unable to help.

“I felt like nobody wanted to listen and the hospitals had wiped their hands of me,” said Mike, who previously had treatment at County Hospital, Hereford.

Consultants in Herefordshire, Swansea, Newport, Cardiff, Abergavenny and Birmingham have all been unable to perform the operation because they either do not have the capacity or the capability.

A spokesman for Wye Valley NHS Trust said: “Occasionally cases arise where we do not have the specialist skills to operate and in these situations, a patient is referred to a specialist service provider that has both the capability and capacity to deal with that case,” he added.

“In complex cases, this can take some time, but never to the detriment of someone’s care.”