A CANCER survivor who is taking part in the Mongol Rally has flown home for treatment after falling ill en route – but is determined to finish the challenge.

Adam Alderson, 35, of Preston-under-Scar, near Leyburn, North Yorkshire is in hospital in Oxford undergoing tests and has been on a drip for the last 24 hours.

It is believed he developed severe dehydration while on the 15,000 mile drive across Europe and the Middle East, and became seriously ill seven days ago in Kazakhstan.

He and wife Laura, and two friends, who are taking part in the rally, managed to get over the border into Russia, and with Mr Alderson’s condition deteriorating, he flew from Barnaul into Moscow, and from there back to Heathrow, London.

Speaking from his hospital bed in Oxford – the same hospital where he underwent pioneering multiple-organ transplant surgery two years ago in a bid to rid him of a rare peritoneal cancer – he said he is undergoing tests today to make sure his condition is due to dehydration and nothing more sinister.

He said: “My kidney function has improved by 50 per cent. My sodium and potassium levels were so low that they couldn’t believe how I must have been feeling out there.

“A few more days without this could have changed things.”

Depending on the outcome of today’s tests, the couple still hope to fly back out to Russia to meet up with their team mates and finish the rally.

Mr Alderson said: “I’ll drive that bloody Jimny across that finish line if it kills me.”

  • The team is raising money for the Steve Prescott Foundation and Macmillan Cancer Support. To follow their progress, or make a donation, see www.yorkshireyaks.co.uk