That luck had him laughing last week about the food he was unable to eat since losing several internal organs, and even about dying, which he did twice in recent months when he flatlined on operating tables.

“There’s no music, no lights and no flame, not in my case anyway,” the 64-year-old said with a laugh.

The Ulladulla boat builder recently underwent “the mother of all surgeries” to remove several damaged organs along with a 12kg tumour.

But rather than sit back quietly during his recovery, and focusing on getting back to work to help son Glenn who has taken over the family business, he has started fighting to ensure more people are able to undergo the life-saving operation.

Mr Hodge sought treatment after 12 months of gastric reflux, but the tablets he was given did not fix the problem.

That led to a gastroscopy when a camera was inserted into Mr Hodge’s stomach, but during the procedure he expelled fluid from his stomach which went into his lungs, resulting in him flatlining.

While he was revived and needed treatment for pneumonia, a scan later showed he has fluid in his abdominal cavity outside his stomach, which was putting pressure on his organs.

A cancer diagnosis was made, and “I was glad I was lying down at the time,” Mr Hodge said.

The rare cancer pseudomyxoma peritonei (PMP) was in his appendix, resulting in it producing large amounts of thick, sticky fluid that filled his abdomen, yet it did not show up on any blood tests.

Within days Mr Hodge was seeing one of only two people in the world specialising in such a case – Professor David Morris who is credited with building St George Hospital’s peritonectomy unit up to an international standard.

The operation on February 12 lasted more than 15 hours, and Mr Hodge said the doctors were confident they had removed all the cancer.

“The prognosis is all good,” he said.

“I feel good, I really do.”

However the matter does not stop there because “we’re really concerned about the people to come,” Mr Hodge’s wife Kay says.

Despite being one of only two people in the world able to handle the growing number of peritonectomies, Professor Morris has had his operating theatre time cut back from three days a week to two.

Mrs Hodge said it was becoming a lottery who would be seen in time, and who could be forced to wait until it was too late to operate.

“There will be families that will sit in his office and he will have to tell them he can’t operate on them,” she said.

“Dad was very lucky that he was advanced enough to get in quickly, but not so serious that he was too far gone to operate,” added their daughter Sharon Clear.

“It shouldn’t come down to luck.”

Mrs Clear described her father as “a very strong, determined man who takes everything in his stride and faces adversity head on and with enormous dignity. He is, in a word, my hero.”

The family has been fighting to get more theatre time for Professor Morris, and has gained the support of Sate Member for South Coast, Shelley Hancock, and Federal Member for Gilmore, Joanna Gash.

A petition has also been put together by another of Professor Morris’s patients, who credited the surgeon with saving her life when others had given her a death sentence.

The petition calling on the state government to step in and ensure Professor Morris is given more theatre time can be downloaded from www.livesatrisk.com.au. It should be returned to Cancer Patients Petition, PO Box 5176, Greenwich, NSW, 2065.