A 14-year-old Wiltshire teen diagnosed with leukaemia days after he was crowned a tap dance world champion has found his feet again – and will represent GB.
Jude Feltham feared he would never dance again after he collapsed less than a week after winning gold in Brazil.
Then aged 12 he feared he would never tap dance again after he was diagnosed with lymphoblastic leukaemia.
But he has fought back and defied the odds by being selected to represent Great Britain again just two years later.
Jude, who trains with Tap Attack in Swindon, is still receiving daily chemotherapy.
But he refused to give up on his dream of becoming a dancer and has since been selected to represent Great Britain again in a Trio and Solo performance.
While Jude was too unwell to train to qualify in 2020, with the pandemic in full swing, the trials were cancelled.
It gave the determined young man the time needed to move into the “maintenance period” of his treatment and get started with practising.
Jude said: “It was really hard at first, I could only manage about 10 minutes at a time.
“But now I just feel really happy that the one thing I really want to do, I can do again.
”And I just love being around all my friends at dance and at school.
“My mates have all been amazing. They support me and are always backing me up and making me feel good.”
Now, the 14-year-old is sharing his story to launch Dorset’s ‘Stand Up To Cancer’ campaign for Cancer Research UK, and hopes to inspire people to take part.
Jude said: “I spent a couple of months in a wheelchair and several weeks on crutches and I thought I’d never dance again.
“I didn’t want to hear any of the music I had danced to or watch any of the videos. I just thought, ‘What if everything I trained for has gone out of the window?”
Jude had received his diagnosis just a few days before Christmas.
Boo Feltham, Jude’s mum, said: “It all happened very quickly. After 4 months of training every weekend with Tap Attack, Jude came back from the World Championships in Germany at the end of November 2019 having won a gold and bronze medal.
“We were all so proud of him”.
“A few days later we went to pick our Christmas tree. Jude suddenly felt a bit poorly and said he couldn’t walk anymore, and he just collapsed.
“I knew something wasn’t right so the next day my husband Tony took him to the doctor who told us it was probably just a bad virus.
“He went back to school a week later and when he came home, he went straight to the sofa and fell asleep, still in his coat”.
The next morning, Jude said his ankle hurt, which was red and had blotchy marks.
Boo added: “I took him straight to A&E where they took blood. All I could think about then was how it would affect his dancing. I was completely oblivious at this point that it could be anything more serious.
“The next day the consultant who was on duty, who was someone we knew, was talking to Jude about his blood results and then he said, ‘the term for this condition is ‘leukaemia’.
“I was fully aware at this point that leukaemia was a form of cancer. My eyes were full up trying to hold it together because I didn’t want to upset Jude.
“I just thought, ‘I can’t fall apart’. If he saw me panic, he would panic.
Simply asking the doctor; “Will I be able to dance again?” Jude’s mum felt heartbroken for her son.
However, after intense and exhausting period of treatment, Jude is now back on his feet and was even invited to be dance captain at his dance school in Dorset, to help advise on the performances ahead of their show in February 2020.
Boo said: “It made him feel valued within the dance school, even though he wasn’t on stage he was still able to make a good contribution”.
With another seventeen months of treatment left and chemo every day, Jude’s determination and success is a colossal achievement that he is now using as an encouragement to other people struggling with cancer.
Encouraging others to take part, Jude is spreading his story to support and help fundraise for Cancer Research UK’s ‘stand up to cancer’ campaign which will see people try to stay on their feet all day for as long as they can.
The fundraising efforts will begin on October 15th, culminating with a glittering night of live TV on Channel 4.
