A team of doctors in the UK have used a concrete panel to fill a gap in a man's checst after he was operated for tumour around his ribs.

Marek Barden was operated for six hours and surgeons took out 1.5kg tumor from his chest. They also had to remove six ribs, the lining of his left lung and part of his diaphragm. The doctors then replaced his ribs with a 3-4mm thick, 25cm (10in) square concrete panel on his right hand side.

Barden, who is a church worker from Knowle, Bristol, had noticed the growth in his chest about a year earlier but ignored it thinking it was due to a cycle accident. However, a scan last August revealed that a rare chondrasarcoma cancerous tumour.

"I went into hospital prepared to die, but I'm a fighter and I'm stubborn. I can feel it and the little lumps and bumps on it. I don't have sensation on that part of my body at all but I have got used to that now. I was extremely lucky," he said.

Plastic surgeon Paul Wilson said that the tumor was one of the largest his team had ever seen.