It’s nearly 4 years since my oncology consultant sat by my hospital bed and told me I had just 2 months to live. It was July 2015, I was just 38, with a loving wife and 2 young children.

I’d relapsed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia (ALL), an aggressive form of blood cancer. My heart, ocular muscles of the right eye, central nervous system and a kidney were all affected and there wasn’t a treatment to fight it, just one for palliative care, to make the final few months more comfortable.

Up to that point, the initial diagnosis of ALL back in 2014 was the hardest challenge I’d ever faced, but sitting there with my wife, mum and dad, and brother, being told that at most I had 2 months to live, that put a whole new level of challenge before me and my family.

Whether it’s your health, relationships or a challenge in your business, when the odds seem stacked against you and even the experts tell you it’s a challenge too far, you need to know how you’re going to:

Take control;

Focus on what you want the outcome to be;

Understand how you will fight;

Build a team to win.

This approach put my body and mind in a good place to be able to deal with the chemotherapy, radiotherapy and other drugs I had to take when I was first diagnosed with ALL in 2014, and it was the approach we took to fight after the terminal diagnosis.

With my oncology consultant co-ordinating an amazing team at the BRI in Bristol, my wife Helen also took control of everything we could do and spent hours researching, understanding and planning what diet, therapies and mindset approach I needed to adopt to keep my body and mind as strong as possible. She surrounded me with a team of experts in nutrition, physical, mind based and alternative therapies.

Not only did this give me the physical strength and benefits, but it also gave me a huge belief and positive attitude that I would beat the diagnosis.

And here I am today, free of leukaemia, loving life and in great health.

I’ve learnt so much from the past few years, in terms of how to approach challenges in all areas of my life.

So how will you approach your next challenge?

Who are the team you will look to for help?

How will you show belief and strength to those closest to the challenge, so they can keep going and contribute positively?