WHEN Robert Kershaw was able to eat only two chocolates and a breadstick on Christmas Day in 2015, he knew he needed to go to the doctor’s.

Less than a week later, on New Year’s Eve, he was diagnosed with chronic myeloid leukaemia at the age of 43.

But the Penketh resident’s blood cancer has now been undetectable for nine months.

Dad to 10-year-old Penketh Primary School pupil Sam, Robert said: “I’d been doing a load of exercise at the gym and I thought I’d lost a load of weight because of that.

“Then towards the end of the year I started to get really bad indigestion and lost my appetite.

“It came to a head on Christmas Day when I was gearing up to the big feast - I had a couple of Quality Street and a breadstick and I couldn’t eat anymore.

“I went to the doctor’s and spent New Year’s Eve in A&E at Warrington Hospital before I was diagnosed with leukaemia.”

After months of treatment at the Royal Liverpool Hospital - including a bone marrow transplant in January last year and a relapse in August - the IT consultant is now in remission.

And his wife Emma is now hoping to raise £1,000 for blood cancer charities Bloodwise and the Bloom Appeal by taking on the three peaks challenge.

Alongside a group of friends, fellow gym goers at Immortal Fitness Studios in Stockton Heath, the 43-year-old accountant will attempt to climb Ben Nevis, Snowdon and Scafell Pike within 24 hours on Saturday, June 23.

Robert, who is now 45, added: “The Royal Liverpool Hospital and the Bloodwise charity were fantastic.

“We thought that, because of all the help and support we’ve had from both, we should give something back.

“Without Emma I’d be a mess - she’s been so strong.

“The support and help she’s given me has been brilliant and I’m so proud of her for what she’s doing.”

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