A CANCER patient sparked a bomb alert while travelling home from holiday.

Peter Davies, from Witham, set off radiation detectors set up by UK Border Agency officials as he left a ferry at Dover.

The 60-year-old, of Rex Mott Court, in Guithavon Street, had undergone a massive dose of radiation for thyroid cancer a fortnight earlier.

Mr Davies, who had been in the midi-Pyrenees region of France, said: “As we were driving off the boat, we were pulled over by the UK Border Agency behind a large police van, so we couldn’t go anywhere.

“One of the agency people came up and handed me a laminated sheet which said I had set off a radiological alarm.

“Because it was about the time of the anniversary of the 7/7 bombings, they were on very high alert and he explained this to me.”

Mr Davies and partner Pauline Marr were asked to stay in their car while their passports were checked.

An official checked the vehicle with a Geiger counter, which started “clicking wildly” when it came near Mr Davies.

Fortunately, he had a hospital letter confirming his radiation treatment.

The ex-press photographer, who has worked for the Gazette and national newspapers, said: “I guess right at the very beginning there was a certain amount of tension. But as soon as they saw us it became relaxed, and they were good natured about the whole affair.

“They kept saying to me: ‘We have to take precautions, I hope you understand’.

“I said: ‘Absolutely. The last thing I want is someone bringing something in and hundreds of people turning up in hospital with burns and what-not.’”

The couple were free to go after 20 minutes. He was told he was the first person to have been stopped in such circumstances.

Mr Davies, who was diagnosed with thyroid cancer last September, was not stopped on his way to the Continent or when he left France.

He was given 2.8 gigabecquerels of radioisotope at St Bartholomew’s Hospital in London. The safe limit to be allowed back into the community is 800 megabecquerels, and he was down to 400 when he left hospital.