A TEENAGE tap dancer who was diagnosed with leukaemia just days after becoming a world champion feared he would never dance again.

Jude Feltham from Wimborne was just 12-years-old when he was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia which left him too weak to move and with two spinal fractures.

But despite receiving daily chemotherapy, Jude refused to give up on his dream of becoming a dancer and has since been selected to represent Team GB again.

Now, the 14-year-old is sharing his story to launch Dorset’s Stand Up To Cancer campaign.

Boo Feltham, Jude’s mum, said: “It all happened very quickly. After four months of training every weekend with Tap Attack in Swindon as part of Team GB, Jude came back from the World Championships in Germany at the end of November 2019 having won a gold and bronze medal. We were all so proud of him.

“A few days later we went to pick our Christmas tree. Jude suddenly felt a bit poorly and said he couldn’t walk anymore, and he just collapsed. I knew something wasn’t right so the next day my husband Tony took him to the doctor who told us it was probably just a bad virus.

“He went back to school a week later and when he came home, he went straight to the sofa and fell asleep, still in his coat. The next morning, he said his ankle really, really hurt. It was red and had strange blotchy marks which I now know are called petechiae and are a sign of leukaemia.

“I took him straight to A&E at Poole Hospital where they took bloods and mentioned it could be some form of osteoporosis. All I could think about then was how it would affect his dancing. I was completely oblivious at this point that it could be anything more serious.

“I was fully aware at this point that Leukaemia was a form of cancer. My eyes were full up trying to hold it together because I didn’t want to upset Jude. The doctor asked Jude if he had any questions, and he responded with, ‘will I be able to dance again’, it was heartbreaking.”

Jude, 14, said, “I spent a couple of months in a wheelchair and several weeks on crutches and I thought I’d never dance again. I didn’t want to hear any of the music I had danced to or watch any of the videos. I just thought, ‘what if everything I trained for has gone out of the window?’

“It was really hard at first, I could only manage about 10 minutes at a time. But now I just feel really happy that the one thing I really want to do, I can do again. And I just love being around all my friends at dance and at school. My mates have all been amazing. They support me and are always backing me up and making me feel good.”

Now Jude is hoping that others will dig deep by backing Stand Up To Cancer, the joint fundraising campaign from Cancer Research UK and Channel 4. On Friday October 15 the campaign will culminate with a glittering night of live TV on Channel 4.