Father-of-four who survived blood cancer urges others to visit GP if 'something is not right’

September is Blood Cancer Awareness Month. It also marks one year since father-of-four Jonathan Smith, from Hale, completed successful treatment for acute myeloid leukaemia – a type of blood cancer.

Now, Jonathan is joining Greater Manchester Cancer Alliance to encourage people to make sure they recognise the signs and symptoms of blood cancer.

Jonathan, a keen cyclist, initially noticed something wasn’t quite right in January 2021 when he found himself getting tired more easily.

The technology consultant, now aged 52, said: “I’m a keen cyclist and usually cycle about 100 miles a week. Each year I tend to reduce my training in December and then hit it hard again in the New Year. I monitor how I’m progressing and last year I noticed I wasn’t getting any fitter – if anything I was getting worse!

“At first, I thought it was just because I needed to build up my fitness again, but I began finding it harder and harder and I felt really tired – like I could fall asleep at any time and [was experiencing] light headedness. Even walking the dog began to tire me out. I thought I might have Covid and be asymptomatic, so I decided to rest for a few weeks, but then I started to get really sore gums.”

After visiting both his dentist and then his GP, Jonathan was referred to Manchester Royal Infirmary for further tests and discovered he had acute myeloid leukaemia - a type of blood cancer.

Jonathan said: “I stayed in hospital for the tests and as we were still in a lockdown, they asked me to get my wife on Face Time for a meeting with my consultant and that’s when I realised it wasn’t likely to be good news. But then they told me they had a treatment plan and hearing it was possible to be cured was enough for me at that point. It