A MIRACLE man is set for major surgery to rebuild his face using bone from his leg - after surviving mouth cancer and near fatal blood poisoning.

Brave William Murdoch is set for more painful surgery to take his fibula bone and reset it in his jaw, which had to be removed to cut out a malignant lump.

Since he was diagnosed with cancer, the Greenock man has endured 13 operations following a failed attempt at reconstruction.

On one occasion he was left fighting for his life after ending up with potentially-deadly septicaemia.

The doctors had all but given up hope of saving him, but William rallied round and later walked his wife Sandra down the aisle.

Now as he faces yet another major operation, the brave butcher told the Tele that he has 'no fear' and is just happy to be here.

The 54-year-old, from Tarbet Street, said: "I will be okay. I am here and that is the main thing."

William, who lives with constant pain now, has no shoulder blade and will be left without a fibula bone in his left leg.

He joked: "I am a butcher, so I have been quizzing the surgeons on what they will be doing!"

The Tele reported last year how surgeons had tried to use the scapula flap from his shoulder in his jaw, having already taken tissue from his hip.

But within hours they realised it hadn't set and William had to under go a series of emergency operations.

While on the operating table he ended up with septicaemia and they had to abandon surgery.

Doctors then feared he wouldn't make it through the night and had all but given up on being able to save him.

He said "The doctors had just about decided that they couldn't do any more. That was it.

"I saw my mother again and she has been dead for 15 years. I never believed in all that until then.

"But somehow I pulled through.

"For me it was Sandra, I wanted to live so that I could marry her."

William only found it he had mouth cancer after a routine visit to the dentist and was told he would have to have life-saving surgery to remove the lump.

After undergoing all the operations last January he fought through the pain barrier to return to his work behind the meat counter at Morrisons.

He added: "I do hide the pain that I am in, but I believe in just getting on with things."

In August last year Willian and Sandra were married, a day they thought they'd never see.

William added: "It was the best day of our lives."

Now they are facing the nine-hour reconstructive surgery on May 29.

Sandra said: "I can't believe how brave he is."