LISTEN to some of the more devout fitness fanatics and they'll have you believe going to the gym is a matter of life and death.

For Poole dad Lee Wylde, however, the sentiment may actually ring true.

Lee is currently fighting his way back to fitness after complications with his leukaemia treatment.

The 34-year-old was diagnosed with the cancer eight years ago and an almost fatal reaction to a bone marrow transplant means Lee is constantly staving off threats to his life.

But as a man unwilling to let the disease get the better of him, Lee has returned to his passion of weight training as a way of hitting back at the illness.

"Going to the gym helps you physically and mentally," he said.

"My weight fluctuates because in the winter I end up in hospital with pneumonia, so it builds my strength up throughout the summer.

"If I didn't train, I don't think I would make it past the winter."

Lee's inspirational fight has been recognised by his gym, Fitness First, which nominated him in its national New You Achievement Awards recently.

He attended a lavish ceremony in London recently along with 1,200 other nominees.

Jenny Birkett, health and fitness manager at Fitness First in Poole, said: "I've seen Lee up and down so many times, and sometimes we don't see him for a while.

"But he'll come back when it's time to start getting back to fitness and will always be the first person to ask How are you?' "He's very inspiring."

A health and fitness nut before his illness hit, Lee admits he has to keep challenging himself to come back and get started again.

"The gym when you first start is hard and it is a chore," he said.

"But you start getting a bit of fitness, a bit of strength, you see the goals and you start enjoying it again."

After Lee's initial chemotherapy and transplant had been deemed a success, complications began to emerge a few years after he was first diagnosed.

Doctors said it was the worst case of graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) - where the transplant begins to attack its host - they had seen and warned Lee he would be likely to lose his fertility.

Yet remarkably his fiancée Nancy gave birth to a baby boy, Izaak, now four, not long after, and the family live together in Creekmoor.

"He definitely keeps me going," said Lee.

"It can be hard work when I am ill, but he's been around it all his life now and is very understanding- he picks on it."

With winter approaching, Lee is under no illusions his long battle is not yet over.

This year alone, he has undergone several heart operations, including the fitting of a defibrillator and a pacemaker.

Not one to let things get him down, Lee says the fight has left him with a whole new outlook on life.

"I have been close to dying quite a few times," he said.

"But you can't let it bother you - if it does, it's beaten you really. We are all dealt our cards and you just deal with them.

"The illness has definitely made me stronger - you respect life more."