NEW YORK - A 52-year-old cancer patient says he lost his payment for a bone marrow donor search because of disgraced U.S. businessman Bernard Madoff.

David Arenson, who was diagnosed with chronic lymphocytic leukemia in 2003, said the $65,000 he lost through an investment with Madoff had been earmarked for a search for a donor that could potentially save his life, ABC News reported Friday.

"If I expect to live to be as old as Bernie Madoff is, I'm going to need a bone marrow transplant," Arenson said. "And that money that I had in Madoff, that my family had in Madoff, would've gone a long way to making that doable."

Madoff, former NASDAQ stock exchange chairman, stands accused of running a $50 billion Ponzi scheme that cost some of his clients tens of millions of dollars.

Arenson, who was told in 2003 that he had up to 15 years left to live, said he had always trusted Madoff and was shocked to learn of the businessman's arrest last December.

"It was about the last thing I expected to hear," he told ABC News. "I was completely in shock."

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