Dom Hurford was a fun-loving 16 year-old, when he was diagnosed with leukaemia in March 1993. It wasn’t until two weeks later when Dom suddenly understood how precarious his situation was.  He says: “A group of friends had come to visit me and one of them asked me what it was like to have cancer. It was a huge shock.

But thanks to the pioneering treatment he received at Bristol Children’s Hospital, Dom, now 35, recovered. And he was so inspired by the experience that when he left school he trained to become a doctor and began working on the wards where he was once treated: “I had been surrounded by doctors and nurses, and it was my way of giving something back. Everything I needed – the chemotherapy, the bone marrow transplant – was delivered within a 15-minute drive from home. I decided, yes, I’ll be a doctor, stay in the city and do what I can do.”

Almost 20 years after his diagnosis, Dom is a key supporter of Wallace and Gromit’s Grand Appeal and he is fronting our latest fundraising campaign, which will help more young people survive, recover and enjoy full lives.

He says: “The hospital was the first in Europe to be built around children. You feel that when you walk in. Treatments have changed, everything keeps evolving. To push the boundaries, to improve things you have to expand, change.”

Read more of Dom’s incredible story in The Guardian.