Soldier Ian Young’s brave fight with leukaemia has inspired a Facebook friend to make a “bald” move for charity.

Gemma Myers, 22, from Redcar is planning a full head shave in aid of blood cancer charity Leukaemia CARE after hearing of Ian’s determined battle with the disease.

My Storey

Ian Young who cheated death in Afghanistan now faces his biggest battle - beating leukaemia.

Infantryman Ian Young saw two colleagues shot dead by an Afghan policeman during a six-month stint in Helmand Province with the 1st Battalion, The Yorkshire Regiment.

Dad Ian, of Teesville, was at a checkpoint with his comrades when the policeman he’d helped train suddenly opened fire in a “green-on-blue" attack - the term used to describe attacks on NATO troops by Afghan security forces.

Ian, 23, survived, but his return home was to throw an unexpected bombshell his way.

He was diagnosed with - and thought he’d beaten - an aggressive form of leukaemia.

But within weeks of getting the all-clear, he was again diagnosed with the disease.

And this time, only a bone marrow transplant will cure it.

Now he’s pinning his hopes on a donor being found in time.

But to improve his, and other people’s, chances of finding a match, he is urging people to join the bone marrow register.

 

Sitting at his family’s Teesville home with mum Michelle Iveson, fiancee Nicole Hall, 20, and 14-week-old son Tommy, former West Redcar School pupil Ian talks with pride about his life as a soldier - and with remarkable matter-of-factness about his ongoing leukaemia battle.

After training in Catterick, he became a fully fledged soldier in 2009 and is now based at Warminster, from where he was despatched to Afghanistan last year for a six-month tour.

He said: “I always wanted to be a soldier and to get in the thick of it. I didn’t want to be sat behind a desk.

“I love it - going different places, doing new things. And the camararderie is fantastic.

"Afghanistan was a good experience too - although it had its ups and downs.”

Those “downs” included the green-on-blue incident at the end of his tour which affected him deeply - although he’s understandably reluctant to discuss it in any detail.

After returning from Afghanistan in October 2012, increasing tiredness and a rash saw Ian seek medical advice in February - and the diagnosis was devastating.

He was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukaemia and immediately began an intensive course of chemotherapy.

He responded well to the treatment and all seemed well last July when he received the all-clear, got engaged to Nicole and little Tommy was born.

But just days before he was due back at work, the tiredness and rash returned and a month ago, he got the diagnosis he dreaded - the leukaemia had returned.

And this time, a transplant at Newcastle’s Freeman Hospital is the only option.

 

 

His rare genetic make-up saw sister Adele, 26, and brother Thomas, 16, ruled out as matches.

An international search has now uncovered two possible donors in Brazil and one in Israel.

But Ian knows his fate is now largely out of his hands.

He said: “It was a shock but at the end of the day, there’s nowt you can do about it.

“I know I need a transplant and I need it pretty soon.

“There’s people worse off than me, though.”

He said: “I just want people to sign up to the register. It’s dead easy and doesn’t take long but it can make a massive difference.”

A Support Ian Young Facebook page, urging people to join the register, saw more than 1,000 pledges of support within 24 hours.

Mum Michelle, 46, a nurse in the spinal injury unit at James Cook University Hospital in Middlesbrough, said: “Even when he was little, he’d say ‘I don’t have to go to school because I’m going to be in the Army.’”

And she’s hugely proud not only of Ian’s Army exploits, but how he is facing up to his leukaemia battle.

“He keeps us going - he never mopes around feeling sorry for himself,” she said.

As for Ian, his ambitions shine as bright as ever: “I just want to get back in remission, be a good dad and crack on in the Army,” he said.