A PROMISING young goalkeeper, whose father believes his cancer was caused by artificial football pitches, has lost his fight for life.

Lewis Maguire, 20, from Darlington, believed he had beaten Hodgkin's Lymphoma for the fourth time in four years following a stem cell transplant last month.

But he tragically died in Newcastle's Freeman Hospital last Wednesday after being taken ill with serious bacterial infection c. difficile.

His father Nigel Maguire said: "His death has left a massive, gaping hole in our lives. He was such an effervescent character. He was bubbly, bright and always looking on the bright side of life.

"He was and always will be my hero. The emptiness he leaves behind has left us all bereft and at sea."

Huge Middlesbrough FC fan Lewis was a promising young footballer undergoing trials with Leeds United at the age of 16 when he first became ill, not long before he was due to take his GCSEs.

He relapsed twice with stage four lymphoma, then again recently.

Last year he took part in some phase one drug trials which left him paralysed from the neck down after contracting Guillain Barre syndrome.

Mr Maguire said: "He was gradually getting his feeling back. He had to wait a few months before he got the stem cell transplant.

"After that we thought he was in the clear but within a week he was badly ill with the infection."

Mr Maguire said his son had a wide circle of close friends who came to see him regularly in hospital.

Lewis was a Boro season ticket holder and had played football for Richmond School, North Yorkshire county and local teams such as Brompton on Swale.

Despite his illness the Richmond School pupil took his GCSEs, gaining seven, and then went on to college where he got a triple distinction in his BTEC in electrical engineering. He had a place waiting got him to study engineering at Manchester Metropolitan University.

His funeral takes place a week tomorrow (Thurs), when he will be driven around the Riverside Stadium in Middlesbrough.

Mr Maguire, a former NHS chief executive, has temporarily stopped his campaigning into the use of artificial football pitches while he grieves for his son.

He had been pressing for an investigation over fears they may have caused the cancer that ended his son's promising career.

The artificial '3G pitches' are made with rubber crumb, or shredded car tyres, which he believes contain cancer-causing chemicals. Campaigners in the US have linked synthetic pitches to more than 150 cancer cases. Goalkeepers are thought to be more at risk because they dive for the ball.