A FORMER Newport man who lost two of his children to a rare genetic disorder and fought a cancer battle himself is embarking on a charity challenge to give something back to a hospital which helped him.

Hywel Morse, who emigrated to America in 1993, will co-captain a team at the 2011 Dragon Boat Upstate Festival, South Carolina.

He will join staff from the Moving On oncology rehabilitation programme at Greenville Hospital System's life centre, who helped him battle back to health after being diagnosed with leukaemia two years ago.

The contest sees twenty paddlers and one drummer race on the waters of Lake Hartwell.

Mr Morse, 43, whose mum Lou still lives in Cwmbran, first discovered he had late stage four leukaemia in 1999 and underwent a gruelling programme of chemotherapy for the next six months.

His medical director suggested he should join the rehabilitation centre to help his recovery.

"When I started Moving On, I realized just how far cancer and chemotherapy set me back," Hywel explained. "But it was encouraging how quickly my strength and energy came back. I noticed a tremendous benefit after just a few weeks."

Mr Morse said the centre helped him with physical, psychological and spiritual healing, devising an exercise programme to rebuild his strength.

He is now in remission, but it is not the first battle he has faced.

The engineer and his wife Jana, who he met whilst posted in Greenville, successfully fought a proposed charge of $250 from British Airways with the help of the Argus for a small amount of oxygen for their son Tomas.

The youngster, diagnosed with Vici Syndrome which leads to youngsters being born with severe heart problems and immune system deficiencies, was travelling to the Brain Wave Centre in Somerset for assessments and tests, but was not able to take his tiny oxygen cylinder on board.

Tomas died in 2006, aged eight. Most children with the rare syndrome do not live beyond the age of four.

The family were relieved to find out their second son, Tim, was not affected.

However, their daughter Carys was, and she died last November, aged also aged eight.

This was less than a month after he had an unrelated cancer on the side of his jaw removed.

He said: "Through all of that, the staff at the centre were incredibly supportive and exercise was a wonderful release for the emotions I was experiencing."

'I'm doing what I can'

Despite his incredibly tough time, Mr Morse, who became a stay-at-home dad to look after his children, now wants to help others by doing the charity event.

He said: "Life's difficulties don't excuse me from doing what I can to help others,"

Hywel said. "My church, my family, and Moving On are the blessings that allowed me to pull through tough times, and I want to make sure others are able to have the same support I received." Mr Morse's team hope to raise $7,500 in the April event to support the rehabilitation programme, which is funded entirely by donations.