HIS world was turned upside down when he was told that he had only three months to live.

Doctors were telling him to just go out and enjoy the few weeks he had left with his family.

However, 13 years later, Tony Halkyard is alive, still working and raising thousands of pounds for charity.

By his own admission, the 59-year-old's determination not to be beaten has helped him to conquer everything that having leukaemia has thrown at him.

Tony, a lorry driver from Fareham, was diagnosed with a rare form of the blood cancer, leukaemia in 1994.

Tony, of Lower Quay Road, said: "I had never really been ill before until I collapsed after work and started finding it hard to breathe.

"I went into hospital and the doctor said how do you want it, straight from the top?' By this time I was feeling great, so I told him to just tell me.

"That's when he said I'm sorry to tell you that you have three to six months'.

"It was devastating but you have two choices, lay down and let it beat you or get up and keep living. I wasn't going to let it beat me."

Over the next ten years, Tony and Pat, his wife of 35 years, and sons Paul and Michael, faced endless trips to hospitals as he underwent gruelling treatments. Through all this Tony never stopped working as a lorry driver and instructor, using rest days for chemotherapy and evenings for radiotherapy.

He has also dedicated his free time to raising more than £18,000 for Leukaemia Busters, a charity he read about in the Daily Echo.

He said: "With the help of friends and members of the Fareham Men's Working Club, I have been able to organise various club nights which have been a great success."

It was not until 2004 that doctors discovered Tony's bone marrow was suitable for stem cell treatment giving him a chance to finally be free from the disease.

The treatment doesn't come without dangers, leaving patients extremely vulnerable to infections as the immune system is affected.

Tony said: "We got the news we had been hoping for. It was brilliant, there was no decision to be made. I was going to have the treatment.

"No matter what other treatment I was going to have the cancer was always going to come back. The doctors warned us of the dangers, the possibility I wouldn't survive, but I just said let's do it'.

"After the treatment I was the lowest I ever felt but I got through it and now I am in full remission and feeling on top of the world."