Teen 'detached from reality' to cope with return of aggressive cancer

A teenage boy with lymphoma says he coped with the return of his cancer by detaching himself from his illness, following advice from his father who also faced the disease.

Ethan Griffiths, 14, was diagnosed with Burkitt lymphoma, external - a type of fast-growing non-Hodgkin lymphoma (nHL) - in January, undergoing chemotherapy and being declared cancer-free in May, before having an "aggressive" relapse.

The sport and gaming-mad teen, who underwent a new treatment being trialled in Bristol, came home to Maesteg cancer-free again in September.

"Through it all I tried to stay as positive as I could," said Ethan, adding it was his dad Lloyd, also a cancer survivor, who was often "losing his head".

News of the young rugby player's relapse came just two weeks after getting home from the hospital.

"It was much more heartbreaking because I was getting back into everything," he said.

"I went to school for half a day, and I was going to the gym quite regularly and getting back into fitness.

"Then obviously to hear that news was really horrendous."

His family faced "immeasurable stress" as Ethan joined a clinical trial at Bristol Royal Hospital Children for patients with B-cell nHL who had not responded to treatment or had relapsed.

The UK-wide trial involving two new drugs, external offered just a 50% chance of success.