TO BEAT cancer once is a triumph - but an inspirational York man has beaten the disease a staggering FIVE times.

Now, though he is again suffering from lymphoma, Peter Gibbon, 29, is determined to continue his battle against the disease.

At the same time he is backing a nationwide search for young people to help develop a new website about the condition.

He is being supported, as always, by his wife, Deborah, who is raising money for the Lymphoma Association by cycling 130 miles next month.

Peter, of Stubden Grove, Clifton Moor, was diagnosed with Hodgkin's Lymphoma, a cancer of the lymphatic system, at the age of 21, and after treatment was told there was a good chance it would not return.

But it did return - again and again. Peter has undergone two stem cell transplants, the first using his own stored blood and the second using his brother John's, as well as chemotherapy and radiotherapy.

He has been in remission - where there are no apparent traces of cancer left - a number of times, although the cancer has since returned.

But Peter's positive attitude, the support of Deborah, his family, and doctors in Cheltenham, York and St George's Hospital in London, have all helped him survive.

Peter said: "I would love things to be different, of course I would, but it's almost become a way of life.

"It will be eight years in January since I was diagnosed, and I had two choices.

"You either get on with your life - or you don't. I know which one I preferred. There's a lot of young people with lymphoma and for maybe about five per cent of us it does come back to stay. That is why this website would be so good for people."

Meanwhile Deborah, 29, will be among 60 cyclists travelling from Workington, Cumbria, to Roker, near Sunderland, on June 14 and 15.

She said: "The Lymphoma Association helps people like my husband who are affected by lymphatic cancers, Hodgkin's disease and the non Hodgkin's lymphomas. Although every year in the UK there are 40 per cent more cases of lymphoma than leukaemia, many people have not heard about the disease."

To sponsor Deborah, telephone 693551 or visitwww.justgiving.com/DeborahGibbon.

To contribute ideas to the website visit www.lifesite.info.

Updated: 09:54 Saturday, May 24, 2003