THE mayor of Yate has spoken of his determination to continue leading the town during his two-year battle with bladder cancer.

Speaking exclusively to the Gazette, Mike Robbins said he fought very hard not to let the disease bring him down and had purposely carried on with his mayoral duties and family responsibilities.

"It has kept me going," said Mike, 73. "I have tried not to think about the cancer and not let it curtail my activities."

For veteran Mike, 73, his diagnosis was a double blow for the family after his wife Margaret, 72, battled a tumour for six years.

She has just been given the all clear but Mike will have to wait for a check up in six weeks to find out if his immunotherapy treatment has worked.

Fortunately, his cancer was caught early.

"I was playing football in the garden with my grandson Sam and he accidentally kicked the ball at me," said Mike, who was posted in Malaya during his two years National Service from 1954.

"The next day I went to the doctor and I was told I had surface cancer."

Mike has now completed a six-week course of invasive treatment, similar to that used for tuberculosis.

"The sessions were uncomfortable," said Mike, who has lived in Kent Avenue since he and his wife moved to Yate in 1963.

"Sometimes I had to stay in at Southmead Hospital but the staff there were absolutely brilliant and everyone we know has rallied around us."

Mike, who worked at Robinsons printers in Fishponds until retirement age, is heavily involved with Yate’s twinning association with Bad Salzdetfurth in Germany. He also teaches survival skills to the Yate 1st Jubilee Scout unit and has ties with the South West branch of the British Judo Association. A representative for Yate North on South Gloucestershire Council for the past two decades, Mike has missed just one council meeting since he was diagnosed.

"Having those things has kept me going," he said. "Most of the time I don’t know I have cancer because it doesn’t make me feel ill.

"We have tried not to let it restrict us in terms of quality of life and have still taken our grandsons Sam, 11, and Matthew, eight, swimming and played football with them."

His wife said: "It was pretty nasty treatment that he had to go through and it is a relief that it is over."

Mike, who smoked a pack of cigarettes a day from the age of nine until Margaret developed cancer, is now an ardent anti-smoker.

"We should ban them altogether," he said. "The amount of people who suffer from cancer is quite unbelievable and then I see young girls in particular starting to smoke.

"Everyone over the age of 50, especially those who smoked, should get themselves checked out.

"They caught mine early, thanks to Sam, but otherwise I would not have known I had cancer at all."