A YOUNG West Fife dad has backed a national campaign to help raise awareness of leukaemia after his own battle with the disease. 

Teaming up with Leukaemia Care for Blood Cancer Awareness Month, Scott McCrindle, from Limekilns, is urging others to be more aware of symptoms after his own experience.

Back in September 2008, Scott was an 18-year-old full-time footballer but his life was turned upside down after he started to feel unwell.

“I began to feel short of energy,” he explained. “I had trouble with nausea, a persistent cough and significant weight loss. I attended my GP surgery on numerous occasions to see what was causing these symptoms and was always told it was merely a chest infection that would clear up.

"It wasn’t until January 2009 when my mum decided enough was enough and demanded something to be done. I was taken to hospital in Dunfermline where they ran some tests, one being a blood test.

“Within 30 minutes of those bloods being taken, I was told I had a form of leukaemia called Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia (ALL) and I would be undergoing chemotherapy the next day. Treatment started in January 2009 and finished in April 2012, and I was given the all-clear in March 2018.”

Leukaemia can be hard to spot because the signs and symptoms are common to other unrelated illnesses. The six most common symptoms experienced by all leukaemia patients prior to diagnosis are fatigue, bruising or bleeding, bone/joint pain, fever or night sweats, sleeping problems and shortness of breath.

Leukaemia Care’s campaign, #SpotLeukaemia, seeks to raise awareness of what the disease is, the symptoms to spot and who can be affected. The charity wants to equip people to spot the signs and symptoms of leukaemia, and urge them to visit their GP if they have any concerns.