Student who thought he'd partied too much during gap year trip given devastating diagnosis

Tom Hunt was in Budapest with friends when he first started feeling unwell. He'd spent the summer before university interrailing across Europe, and thought he probably just needed more sleep and less beer.

But by the time he reached Prague, the then 18-year-old from Hale, started feeling worse. At this point he was suffering from a chest and throat infection and felt exceptionally tired - even after 16 hours of sleep.

Tom decided to fly home early and was able to get a doctor's appointment with his friend's dad, who worked as a GP. He was given antibiotics and booked in for a blood test two days later after raising concerns about a large haematoma on his leg.

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The blood tests confirmed the teenager was suffering with glandular fever, but to his shock, they revealed that he could also have leukaemia. Tom was told to attend Manchester Royal Infirmary straight away, and by the end of the week he was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia.

That was in 2018 and Tom has been in "morphological" remission since November that year. He was cared for by the Christie Hospital in south Manchester until completing his treatment earlier this year.

Now four years later, he is preparing to start at the University of Manchester this September, and says life is finally returning to normal. Having been diagnosed with cancer just one week after experiencing symptoms, Tom is now encouraging other people to get checked out as soon as possible if something doesn't feel right.

"From the July that year I had been feeling tired when I was going to work but then I'd just finished my A-levels and it was nothing you wouldn't put down as normal," Tom