JEHAD HATU has had chemotherapy, a stem cell transplant and a 13-hour operation during his two-year cancer fight.

But the 26-year-old says living with stage three testicular cancer has not left him disheartened. Instead, it has given him the push to follow his dreams of launching a craft beer business. When the Evening times first told Jehad's story in November 2012, he had just completed a course of chemotherapy and was preparing for surgery.

However, the former bar and restaurant worker's health deteriorated and medics feared he would never recover.

Jehad, who lives in Glasgow's South Side, said: "It's just one of those things. Sometimes life throws you an unexpected curveball."

After four months of lower back-ache, he was diagnosed in August 2012 with the illness, which had spread to his lymph nodes, his liver, his intestines and his lungs . Following his second chemotherapy course he underwent a stem cell transplant, and last october doctors performed surgery to remove the tumours from his body.

the surgery was supposed to last seven hours - but he was under the knife for nearly 13 hours after doctors discovered there were more lumps than they thought.

Some tumours were too close to his nervous system or in risky locations, like his lungs, and could not be taken out.

"When they went inside and looked at some tumours they were too close to certain nerves," Jehad said.

"So they had to get some other experts from different fields in the hospital to come in and look at them and make a decision right then and there.

"Plus, I think there were more tumours than they had expected. they didn't see them on the scan."

Yet experts now believe Jehad's cancer has been killed off.

He said: "According to the biopsies, once they did surgery everything looked quite promising. It looked like the chemotherapy had killed off the cancer.

"Even though I had tumours in my body that they were not able to oper-ate on as it was too dangerous they feel quite confident the chemotherapy has done the trick on it."

NOW Jehad is determined to get on with his life, although it is not clear if he is in remission.

He said doctors were reluctant to say he had fully recovered because he had experienced several complications and relapsed early on.

Jehad added: "It had spread throughout so many different parts of my body.

"However, I'm not too worried about that because I am comfortable they are keeping a close eye on me.

"I know I am in really good hands and I can't let these things hold me back. I just have to get out there and start living my life again and be a normal person."

He is not bitter about his diagnosis and says the illness has come with "silver linings".

Jehad met girlfriend Nicole Walker, who has a rare form of ovarian cancer, through the teenage Cancer trust and has made friends for life at the Beatson Centre.

He has also raised money and helped boost awareness through working with children's cancer charity Clic Sargent.

Living with cancer has also made Jehad realise how precious life is.

He said: "You meet so many people at the Beatson - all sharing a common g round.

"Probably the biggest thing is giving me the push I need to say: life's too short, anything could happen, go out and do the things that you want to do."

Jehad is doing just that - he is getting ready to launch a shop dedicated to craft beer. With the help of the Prince's trust and Entrepreneurial Spark, Jehad is launching the Grunting Growler, so-called after the re-usable jugs used to transport beer.

the shop will launch at the Bike Station in Finnieston every thursday, Friday and Saturday between July 14 and August 9. Chicago-born Jehad, who is part-Scottish and part-Palestinian, lived in the American state of Indiana before he moved to Scotland to be closer to his mum Alison, from Greenock, and sister Jenine.

He said: "the craft beer scene in Bloomington, Indiana, is unbelievable.

"The popularity of craft beers has improved in Glasgow, but I want to take it to the next level and give customers the knowledge to make an informed decision."

For information on Jehad's business see: http://www.gruntinggrowler.com/

rachel.loxton@eveningtimes.co.uk