A FATHER with a rare genetic disorder that has left him with the lungs of a 112-year-old is hoping a new drug could help save his life.

Mick Bartlett, of St Vincent’s Chase, Braintree, stopped smoking five years ago after it left him struggling to breathe.

It was only two years later that Mick, now 38, discovered he carried a gene which left him just as vulnerable to other vapours such as candle smoke, car fumes and steam.

The 38-year-old now has stage-three emphysema as a result of an alpha-1 antitrypsin (A1AT) deficiency, which means his body does not produce the protein needed to protect the lungs from inflammation.

Mick was finally diagnosed with the disorder, which is thought to affect about one in 5,000 people in the UK, in January 2012.

Mick, who has the most serious version because he inherited the faulty gene from both parents, has been told he has about ten years to live without help.

He said: “It was a bolt from the blue. The doctor spoke about lung transplants that very day. It was a real shock.”

Mick said a transplant is a last resort because of the dangers associated with the operation.

The steel fixer works at Milbank Concrete Products in Earls Colne and has two sons, Harry, 12, and Stanley, ten, with wife Kate, 34.

In June, pharmaceutical company CSL Behring was granted an EU licence for Respreeza, which is made from human plasma and restores alpha-1 levels in patients through an intravenous drip.

The therapy has been performed in the United States, Canada and some European countries since 1987 but the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Nice) is unlikely to recommend the NHS to start prescribing the treatment for at least a year.

Mick said: “It doesn’t cure it, but it will stop further deterioration.

“It costs about £50,000 per patient, per year, and you have to be a certain level of deterioration.

“I am currently one of only around 500 candidates in the UK, but I may not be eligible for this drug if my lung function drops below 24 per cent.

“It’s currently on 30 per cent and deterioration is about two per cent a year, so if someone doesn’t pick it up quickly my time will be gone.”

See this week's Braintree and Witham Times for the full story.