Nigel Farage told blaming the NHS for losing your testicle is 'b*****ks'

Doctor challenges Ukip leader to NHS debate: ‘Head-to-head, one-ball to one-ball, let’s hammer out what Nigel is selling British public and why it's bollocks’

Nigel Farage will quit as Ukip leader if he fails to win a Parliamentary seat at the general election in May (PA)

A doctor has dismissed Nigel Farage’s claim that the NHS “almost killed” him as “bollocks” and has challenged him to a debate over the future of the NHS.

Dr John Lamport, who is hoping to become an MP for the National Health Action party at the election, accused the Ukip leader of trying to use his experience of testicular cancer to condemn the NHS.

He described Mr Farage’s attempts to blame the NHS for losing a testicle as an “amateur self-diagnosis”.

Now the 26-year-old doctor, who also lost a testicle to cancer, has called on Mr Farage to meet him “one-ball to one-ball” in a debate so he can explain why his argument is “bollocks”.

Dr Lamport is standing for parliament in Nottingham East.

Writing for Open Democracy, he said: “I don't have much in common with Nigel Farage, but we do share one thing. Literally. We each lost a testicle to cancer - and we probably both hear the same jokes about it too.

“There the similarity ends. My gratitude to the NHS for saving my life led me to become a doctor. His anger at it for “nearly killing” him led to a lifelong disdain – except for emergencies, since it twice saved his life. Now he is arguing you're better off going private. As a doctor, I’d say his diagnosis is dead wrong.

“Nigel Farage likes a good debate I’m told, so here’s my offer. Head-to-head, one-ball to one-ball, let’s really hammer out what Nigel is selling the British public and why it's bollocks.

“Nigel has twice told the story of his cancer in print, four years apart and significantly different in detail. I can't pronounce on his case but I do know his amateur self-diagnosis – “All they had had to do that first night in A&E was to have me referred for a scan” – is bollocks.”