THREE days before Christmas, I went to visit Alex Wardrope in hospital.

I didn't quite know what to expect. I knew Alex had been ill for the past few weeks and even though he was on the mend, surely he wanted to be surrounded by his friends and family, not some bloke he had never met?

After spending 30 minutes with him I realised I had no need to worry. Alex was one of the nicest people you could ever wish to meet.

I could spout words such as "brave", "heroic" and "inspirational". Alex was certainly all of those things.

However, I get the feeling he would be embarrassed by such accolades.

In truth Alex was "normal", a normal teenage boy being forced to live an abnormal life by this horrific disease.

Alex liked Arsenal and had a huge DVD collection. He even had the odd lad's mag strewn across his hospital room like any other teenager.

He had ambitions too. He wanted to run the London Marathon one day, to raise money for leukaemia charities.

It is this "normality" which makes his death all the more tragic, the realisation this could happen to anyone, however young.

I would urge anyone reading this to put their name on the bone marrow register.

As his mum Joanne Wardrope says, we should celebrate Alex's life but, just as importantly, do all we can to defeat this awful disease.
GLENN EBREY