A YOUNG underground DJ battling leukaemia says knowing other sufferers are out there having fun again has kept him going through a year in hospital.

Mark Lilleker, 24, was living it up and had just moved into a house in Ashley, New Forest, with his girlfriend when he was diagnosed in June 2010.

Mark, known as M-style, says he barely remembers the first week of being admitted, soon after going to his GP complaining of frequent headaches and feeling terribly weak.

“They hooked me up to a drip and I was asleep pretty much,” said Mark, from Hordle.

“I’ve got a year and a half left of treatment, with a batch of chemotherapy every month and taking pills every night.”

Charity Clic Sargent set him up with a counsellor straight away, also arranging social trips and putting him in touch with people in similar situations.

“We’d go bowling and go karting,” Mark said.

“When you’re in intensive treatment it’s hard to go out with mates. I was self conscious about being so much heavier and bald.”

He regularly talks to one girl through Facebook.

“She was back out having fun, clubbing and going to university again.

“After a tough day of treatment it brightens your day to have someone saying they’re having fun again.

“You need to know it’s not going to be like this forever.”

He’s has started playing events and producing music again. The first dates last August and September were especially tiring, but he’s juggled being fully booked in January and February with regular appointments.

Dad Darren Lilleker, 44, raised more than £1,000 for Clic at the Poole Beer Festival after seeing Mark debilitated by the disease.

Last year, people in Dorset made £40,000 for the cause.

Darren, a lecturer at Bournemouth University, said: “Mark’s kept positive through it.

“Because of Clic he got to talk to people about the impact of the treatment. That was really, really important.”