A young Roydon man, who was diagnosed with cancer twice in a year, has backed a campaign for a regional teenage cancer unit as he prepares for a charity walk.

A young Roydon man, who was diagnosed with cancer twice in a year, has backed a campaign for a regional teenage cancer unit as he prepares for a charity walk.

Ashley Kerridge was in isolation at Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge earlier this summer after undergoing a bone marrow transplant to treat his cancer.

The 21-year-old is now looking forward to joining hundreds of other fundraisers for a night time walk around Norwich for the Blue Moon Walk on September 10 for the Teenage Cancer Trust.

The five-mile event, which will help fund a dedicated teenage cancer unit at Addenbrooke's, comes three months after the patient had a bone marrow transplant to treat Hodgkin's lymphoma.

The electrician was first diagnosed last May and had been in remission when he received the news in January that his cancer had returned to his lymph nodes.

Mr Kerridge, who will find out from his doctor on the day of the Blue Moon Walk whether he has got the all clear, said he wanted to give something back to Addenbrooke's Hospital after spending three weeks in an adult ward earlier this year.

He added that the staff had been 'amazing' while he was stuck in isolation for two weeks to allow his immune system to recover.

'I do not mean to be horrible, but a lot of the people on the ward were older people and I did not have anything in common with them, apart from being there for a transplant.'

'If I had been in a teenage cancer ward it would be a lot easier to handle because you are all in the same situation and a similar age,' he said.

Mr Kerridge raised more than �700 earlier this year during a 12-hour sponsored pool marathon for Woolverstone Wish Fund to extend Ipswich Hospital's chemotheraphy ward. He added that the sponsored walk, which he will be doing with his partner Tracey Mobbs and family, was the 'ideal' event to aid his recovery.

'I have only walked a little bit here and there and down into town, so hopefully I will be ok, I am trying to do as much as I can to push myself to get back to normal and trying to take it easy so I do not overdo it,' he said.

Ex-Norwich City player Darren Huckerby and Norwich-based extreme athlete Jackson Williams are due to take part in the Blue Moon Walk from 8pm on September 10, which has been organised by 16-year-old cancer survivor Rosie Van Raalte, of Little Melton.

The Teenage Cancer Trust has begun work on a new �2.5m ward at Addenbrooke's, but almost �1m still needs to be raised.

To sponsor Mr Kerridge, visit www.justgiving.com/bluemoonwalk