A high-flying businessman told today how he is putting his jet-set life behind him to concentrate on his family after beating cancer.

Adam Hainsworth believes his cancer scare has made him a better person - and he is not going to let that go.

The 41-year-old sales director was traumatised when he found a lump in his neck in March and feared the worst.

He had to give up his work selling textiles to the Far East, cancel a family skiing holiday and postpone plans to have his two sons baptised in the summer because he was so ill.

Originally specialists feared it was lymphoma - cancer of the lymph system - and a scan revealed tumours the size of oranges throughout his body.

He underwent surgery to rid the cancer from his neck and after an anxious wait and more tests, specialists at Cookridge Hospital in Leeds told him his chances of survival were 98 per cent.

He was diagnosed with testicular cancer - not lymphoma. The lumps in other parts of his body were a reaction to his primary testicular cancer.

"It was good news," said Mr Hainsworth of Calverley, who is pictured with wife Fiona and son Reuben. "They said it was testicular cancer and it was the slow-growing form of it. And really it was uphill from there."

But it was a far cry from when he first began to show symptoms.

Mr Hainsworth said: "I'd had horrendous back ache, I'd felt tired for a while but just put it down to working hard.

"It was when I was in China that I had problems moving my legs and thought I should see a doctor. Then I came home and found the lump in my neck. It all happened quickly from there. All the classic signs had been there but I hadn't read them - I'd been too preoccupied - which has been a lesson learned.

"Suddenly you're told you have cancer and although you know death is inevitable for everyone - the question is suddenly very personal and all about when will it come?

"You think about all the things you want to do - see the children grow up, wanting to be remembered by people - and then you realise you might not be able to do all those things because you might not be here in a year's time."

He said it was then he felt selfish.

"This is where my faith came in. I believe God never left me and that he used my illness as an opportunity for me to get closer to him and answered prayers for healing - as a result I feel so much more joyful.

"It changed my life and I'm a better person for it."

Mr Hainsworth underwent surgery to remove one testicle and spent three months having intensive chemotherapy at Cookridge Hospital - a time he described as grim. "It was a painful experience but it was an excellent thing. It made me realise how I worked too hard, worried needlessly about many things and let things spiral out of all proportion. Worry just robs you of happiness."

Now he is back working part-time.

"I'm more relaxed and see everything that happens as an opportunity - even when some others might think it's a problem. I've become the eternal optimist."

After he got the all clear, more than 130 people joined the Hainsworths at St Wilfrid's Church in Calverley to celebrate Adam's health and see his sons Reuben, seven, and Joel, four, baptised.

"It was a tremendous thanksgiving," said Adam's wife Fiona, "It was great to be there with our relatives and church family who'd prayed for us and supported us through it all."