Still racing into future thanks to vaccine

He was first diagnosed with a tumour in his right eye in 1981.

The 71-year-old, who lives with his wife Cathy in Penistone, had surgery to remove his eye and thought little more about it, returning to work running his own automotive engineering business.

But in 2004 he felt pains in his stomach and scans revealed he had a tumour on his liver.

Doctors told him the cancer, known as ocular melanoma, had spread. He had surgery but in 2007 tests found more tumours.

His surgeon told him: "All I can tell you is to pack up work and enjoy what you have left – you have months rather than years."

Then his specialist in Sheffield told him about a new trial in Leeds to treat patients whose melanoma has spread to their liver. "I didn't think twice about doing it. I thought if it is going to help, then let's get it sorted," he said.

Almost two years on, the grandfather of four feels well apart from a few aches in his shoulder and regularly takes his vintage car for a spin on racing circuits.

He said: "I have done more with my life in the last two years after they told me there was no cure. I intend to be here much longer and prove the doctors wrong – hopefully this new drug will help me do just that."

Advanced malignant melanoma is difficult to treat. The trial of PolyMEL DNA vaccine used a new type of biological therapy to harness the immune system to attack abnormal cancer cells, which are not always recognised by the body, by teaching it to target proteins made by melanoma cells.

The trial was the first genetically modified vaccine to be given in Leeds and researchers are currently assessing the results.