Chorley former soldier who battled cancer calling for more support for veterans this Armed Forces Day

Chorley man Jonny Mitchell was devastated when he was medically discharged from the army following a 14-year career and was given just a two to eight percent chance of survival.

Now the dad-of-one is backing charity Help for Heroes as they call for people to salute our veterans, marking Armed Forces Day last Saturday. Jonny is also calling for more support for soldiers who have left the army as the charity reveals a 50% increase in veterans struggling with their mental well-being during the pandemic, and a 48% increase in those not managing their physical health.

The 34-year-old said: "Leaving the army was ten times harder than being diagnosed with cancer. I'd go through it again just to be in the army. It was everything to me - it still is. It's all I know. I still struggle to come to grips with it.

"The blokes there made it the best of times. It is 100% like a family. I still class a handful of people as being closer to me than my actual family because of what we've been through together. It was intense. It's pretty special.

"I'd always wanted to be in the army since I was three or four. Someone in every generation of my family has been in it and I'd still be there if it wasn't for the cancer. I've never been good at anything but I was a really good soldier."

Jonny trained for two years at age 15 to be an army mechanic fixing tanks and quickly rose up the ranks.

He has served all over the Middle East, including Iraq and Afghanistan, but by the end of 2011, a tumour had started to grow inside him. However, it wasn't until Christmas time that he started to develop symptoms like an extreme fever and the sensation of being choked at nighttime.

"I ignored it and cracked on with things until February. My wife Lisa was pregnant at the time and would give me ice baths and wrap me in towels and duvets to help ease my fevers, and I'd have to sit up to sleep as the tumour had become so heavy it would squash my lungs and stop me from breathing," he said.

Despite his strange symptoms, he was misdiagnosed four of five times by doctors who said he had a bug, food poisoning, tuberculosis and bronchitis. But it wasn't until he saw his old GP that the cancer was finally discovered after he was sent immediately for an X-ray.

Finding a 1Kg tumour, believed to be in his chest, medics at first thought he had non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. But in 2012, they discovered that the cancerous growth was actually in his blood in the chest region. They also found that he had thousands of others in his blood all over his body.

"It was traumatic, particularly for Lisa. Blood tests had come back fine and my chest had been shaved in preparation for surgery to cut out the tumour," Jonny said.

"A few minutes later, a doctor said they'd do one last blood check. I think he had a hunch."

But this time, doctors couldn't stop him bleeding and tests showed he had acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL), a type of cancer that affects the blood and bone marrow. Surgeons were forced to act quickly and snap a piece of bone in his hip without anaesthetic to stop the bleeding.

And then came the devastating prognosis - he had just a two to eight percent chance of surviving through the night.

Jonny said: "I had to say goodbye to my family. I wasn't crying. I didn't feel anything. I thought, 'I've had a good innings.' I felt more for Lisa."

But luckily, he pulled through the night.

Four and a half years of daily chemotherapy followed, plus radiotherapy, with his weight dropping from 16 stone to seven and a half.

"My daughter had just been born but I didn't know for a couple of weeks because the chemo had destroyed my memory," he said.

The family was dealt another blow when their daughter Poppy was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis.

"After battling on for three or four months on her own, Lisa called her mum and we moved into their farm. My mum-in-law cared for me while Lisa looked after Poppy," Jonny added.

The former mechanic was determined to see his treatment through and his cancer is now being kept at bay. He credits not just his family and wife for his recovery but also the army.

"I went under the radar a lot after my diagnosis and if it wasn't for Lisa, I wouldn't be here today. But when I was medically discharged, I was also assigned a personal recovery officer. He's amazing. He'd check on me everyday at the house, even though he didn't have to. We're still constantly in touch. He's been a key player in my recovery, which we'll never forget," he said.

It's this experience that has inspired Jonny to highlight the need to take better care of our veterans.

"They need more support. Getting physical help is easy as there are lots of activities for veterans. But the emotional side has only been brought in in the past couple of years. What we've seen so far has been absolutely phenomenal," he said.

"I've had lots of anger management in the past and therapy for depression and PTSD. Every soldier has PTSD.

"My wife says I'm a swinging brick. I don't cry or get emotional but what's helped me is being active. I'm not much of a talker so exercise is my therapy and I've been training every single day during lockdown in my gym at home."

And Jonny says having cancer has made his family more resilient, giving him and his daughter the strength to endure self-isolation throughout the coronavirus pandemic.

"We'll be in complete lockdown until August 31 but we've been through worse as a family. It's just a small blip in the grand scheme of things, and we have such a solid unit at home," he said.

Now he's using that strength to help other veterans access the support they need, adding: "Armed Services Day is a very important reminder of what some people are going through, and with everything going on in the world at the moment, it's the perfect time to remember that veterans are here as well."