Getting a delivery of weights and home gym equipment was a dream come true for teen fitness fanatic Darshan McGregor.
And after coming through gruelling treatment for a brain tumour, a call from Bear Grylls was the icing on the cake for the 14-year-old.
Darshan said: “He’s been through so many life-threatening challenges so he could relate to me. Bear just said keep going, keep fighting and never give up.”
Darshan’s wish for gym kit was granted by charity Make-A-Wish UK, backed by the Mirror Christmas Appeal.
He says: “It’s been amazing what they’ve been able to do.
“It’s really made me happy and it’s one of the things that got me through my treatments, it was one thing I thought about – ‘if I get through this, I’ll get my wish’.”
It was just over four-and-a-half years ago that the youngster from Berkhamsted, Herts, was told he had a brain tumour, at the age of nine.
Darshan says: “I feel like I lost part of my childhood – I couldn’t have fun because I was constantly in hospital. It was impossible to be happy.”
Mum Samreen, 47, said: “Because the tumour was in the thalamus, right in the middle of the brain, taking a biopsy or doing any intervention to try to release the fluid in his brain was very high risk. The process was awful.”
Samreen and marketing exec dad Fraser, 47, consulted experts and decided proton beam therapy in the US was the way to go – but it cost more than £150,000.
A plea for government funding was turned down, so they raised it themselves by remortgaging their home and setting up a Go Fund Me page.
After chemotherapy in the UK they went to Boston for the beam therapy and radiotherapy, and by October 2017 Darshan was cancer-free.
During treatment his interest in fitness and nutrition took off. To help others he made videos for his Kidlivz YouTube channel showing him making healthy recipes.
Darshan will celebrate five years cancer-free next year. The maths whiz, who hopes to become an architect, says: “I’m trying to focus on making sure I stay nice and healthy.”
