A COURAGEOUS Port teenager has won his gruelling battle against a potentially deadly blood cancer — and inspired his entire school to raise money for a charity close to his heart.

Darren Blair says he was ‘scared’ when diagnosed with life-threatening Hodgkin’s lymphoma last October.

The brave 17-year-old remained upbeat throughout his arduous chemotherapy treatment, despite suffering from serious side effects such as sickness and tiredness.

After enduring months of treatment, Darren says it was the best feeling in the world when doctors said he was in remission.

Now the youngster is on a mission to raise money for the Teenage Cancer Trust, which supported him throughout his tough year.

With the help of his best pals Melissa Macreath and Brendan Luis-Mitchell, and all the pupils and staff at his school, St Stephen’s High, Darren has already raised over £600 for the charity.

Darren, from Berwick Road, said: “Last October I was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma B2, which meant I had cancer in my shoulders and chest area.

“It’s a cancer of the white blood cells — in a normal person your cells will multiply, divide and die but my cells were multiplying and gathering in my lymph nodes.

“I had some symptoms, including a sore shoulder, lumps and a really bad chesty cough and night sweats, so I went to the doctor about it.

“When I was eventually diagnosed I felt a bit scared but my mum, brother and my school pals really supported me.” As reported in the Tele earlier this year, Darren had numerous trips to the doctors after becoming unwell and had been prescribed a host of antibiotics before it was discovered he had Hodgkin’s lymphoma five months later.

After his diagnosis he underwent six months of chemo.

He said: “I had to stay off school as I was bedbound.

“Chemotherapy affects everyone differently but after I got it, I would be in my bed for the next four of five days feeling ill and tired.

“But my pals would come and visit me to keep me up-to-date with stuff and that really helped.” During this time, Darren also attended the Teenage Cancer Trust Unit at the Beatson West of Scotland Cancer Centre in Glasgow.

He said: “The Teenage Cancer Trust helped me so much.

“The youth supporter and clinical nurse specialist were so nice and gave me so much support.

“My mum works up there as a pharmacist technician so they all knew me, which was great.” Another great source of inspiration for Darren was teenage cancer hero Stephen Sutton, who sadly died in May after a four-year battle against bowel cancer.

The 19-year-old raised more than £5 million for charity and became a household name by approaching his illness with good humour and a positive attitude.

Darren said: “I was really inspired when I read his blogs.

“It was a great support.” Darren finally received the news he had been waiting for in May when he found out he had fought off the cancer.

He said: “I was ecstatic and happy.

“It’s great to go back to normal everyday life.” To mark the Teenage Cancer Trust’s awareness week last month, Darren and his friends organised a ‘£1 for Darren’ charity collection.

He said: “I got all the pupils in my school year together and we went around classes with buckets.

“The response we got was amazing and we managed to raise £651, which was brilliant.

“I want to thank everyone for supporting us.” Darren’s pal Brendan Luis-Mitchell added: “When we first heard that Darren had cancer we were a bit shocked.

“But we were always going to stick by him, so every couple of weeks we would go up to his house and hang about playing video games.

“It was great to help him out with the fundraising, this was something that was very personal to us because he’s a close friend.” Friend Melissa Macreath said: “We raised money at our awards ceremony and the support we received was brilliant.

“Councillors and staff were putting in £20 notes which helped us raise a huge amount of money.” Jim Cattigan depute head teacher at St Stephen’s High says Darren is an inspiration to everyone at the school.

He said: “It’s great that Darren is back at school. Cancer is always a hard thing for people to talk about but Brendan was great at keeping everyone up-to-date with how Darren was doing while he was off. When cancer does come so close to home you do become more aware of it.” Vanessa Todd, regional fundraiser for the Teenage Cancer Trust has thanked Darren and his friends for their donation.

She said: “The legacy that Stephen Sutton has left is phenomenal but what Darren and his friends have done is equally as kind.

“Darren will inspire so many other young people.” Darren now gets check ups every couple of months and hopes his story will raise awareness of cancer and the charity.

For more information visit www.teenagecancertrust.org