South Derbyshire teen battles back against leukaemia to raise cash for cancer charity

A Derbyshire teenager who has battled cancer for three years since the age of 12 is in remission and has been raising money for the charity that helped him during his illness. Adam Dabrowski, from Newhall, is now 15 and was first diagnosed with leukaemia after becoming short of breath - even when lying down.

He faced an intensive nine-month course of chemotherapy, undergoing treatment three or four days a week following a two-week stay in hospital. The treatment affected him physically and at one point he struggled to walk and could not even stand. He missed approximately half of the following three years of school but recently rang the bell at a hospital in Nottingham after doctors said he was in remission.

Adam now has monthly check-ups and is at school full-time in Year 11, preparing for his GCSE exams next year. He said: “It was at the end of Year 7 that I was struggling to breathe and I had some tests and was told it was leukaemia. At that age I had no idea what that meant but I knew it was bad when my mum started to cry. I still didn’t know what it was.

"I went on steroids for 28 days as I had pneumonia and then I was given a three-year plan for chemotherapy. It was also happening at the time of Covid so I had to be really careful to avoid infections.

"I lost most of my muscle mass and my grandma had to come over from Poland to help look after me. I was having trouble getting up the stairs, trouble even standing, I was really weak.

"I missed a lot of school but after the first nine months I then went down to having chemotherapy every day in tablets, weekly blood tests, chemotherapy once a month in hospital as well as having to take steroids, and lumbar puncture every three months. I really struggled to concentrate. I was just not myself. I think during that whole time there were only two or three weeks when I felt pretty good."

Adam rang his bell in September and a celebration was held at his school - Blessed Robert Catholic Voluntary Academy in Burton.

He said: "When I started to get stronger I went to the gym and at the end of Year 9 I was going to the gym more and working hard. I ended up gaining a lot of weight that I needed to lose so I thought the charity challenge would be a good idea and it’s to help the charity that helped me. The Teenage Cancer Trust helped to provide a teen room at the hospital and I’m sure at some point I would have spoken to someone from the trust."

Adam's dad, Mariusz, suggested taking on a push-up challenge and the pair have completed 3,000 push-ups - 100 a day for 30 days. Adam said: "As the days went on I found I could do 40 to 50 push-ups in one go. I’m just excited to feel like myself now and I can live my life like kids my age do."

Adam’s mum and dad said: "We are proud of Adam’s strength and resilience. It seems like ages ago now but we remember every moment of his journey. We cannot thank the doctors and nurses enough who looked after our son for the whole time and we feel blessed to have such wonderful souls around us who made Adam’s day-to-day life easier."

Amanda Mcdowall, Adam’s head of year, said: “From the moment we found out in school how ill Adam was, no one could believe it. Adam is a lively popular, hardworking, lovely lad and a real little gentleman. There was no sense to it and no getting your head around it.

"Adam was able to come into school very occasionally and under strict guidelines from the hospital. He still continued to try to keep up with his studies despite being told by numerous staff this was not his priority. It has been a three-year battle for Adam and his family but, when we learnt he was being invited into hospital to ring the bell for his last treatment and that he was officially free from so much of the invasive medication, many of the staff were in tears.

"Adam is a true hero and a real inspiration to those who are privileged to know him. We could not be more proud of him and wish him all the very best."

To donate to the push-up challenge in aid of the Teenage Cancer Trust, click here.