Meet Martin, I've worked with him for years and you may recognise him off the telly. He's got a great sense of humour and he's needed it to see him through a traumatic two years of chemo and life saving surgery to remove a bowel tumour and half his liver.

As well as the major surgery, there have also been the unexpected emergencies. His heart stopped as he tried to jump start a car, not a good idea when you're on chemo, luckily a neighbour came to the rescue with a little CPR!

And then there was the rush to hospital before Christmas which Martin sums up nicely: "My emergency op went ok. The staples have to stay in a bit longer than normal because it goes over a previous, recent wound. I have bandages across my abdomen but I've seen underneath, and I can definitely supplement my income as a body double for shark attack movies now."

In true Dowse style he ended the email with the good news he hoped to be back in January. And this really is the extraordinary thing; Martin gave up beer but refuses to stop working! Post Chemo struggling with exhaustion and generally feeling wiped out he's continued work and even texted from his hospital bed.On crutches, unable to walk he works from home,

And this is where the new challenge is. He's on crutches because the cancer has spread to his hip and he needs further surgery. He had to stop chemo during the emergency abdominal surgery and the race is on to get Martin the treatment he needs before the cancer spreads any further. The NHS has been brilliant, but the only way to get treatment really quickly is to pay for it. If for any reason Martin does not need money for his recovery we will donate to a Cancer charity.

There are lots of good people out there, Martin is just one of them - he's a dad and all round lovely person and every one who knows him just wants to do something to try and help.

If all my friends donated £1 to help we probably wouldn't raise enough - so dig deep and skip that Costa coffee.