An estate agent diagnosed with a rare form of leukaemia is starting a radical form of treatment this month – knowing that he has the love and support of his staff behind him.

John Shellcross, 45, a director of Farrell Heyworth, introduced a raffle at the end of year staff party.

The raffle was to raise money for charity, with two of the firm’s top sales people tasked with selling as many tickets as they could to staff.

The hopeful aim was to raise a total  of £750.

Shellcross told staff – there are 200 working in 18 offices across the north-west – that the charity chosen was Bloodwise, a charity set up to fight various blood cancers.

He explained that Bloodwise was part of the team supporting him after his diagnosis last February with Chronic Myeloid Leukaemia.

Shellcross, who continued to work full-time right up until the end of the year, also told staff that he is now taking time off to undergo a radical and innovative treatment, only possible because of the work of charities like Bloodwise.

His announcement came as a total shock to staff.

Shellcross is a well respected and very popular figure at the firm, where he has worked his way up through the ranks. With a wife and young daughter, he is also known as a dedicated family man.

Laura Gittins, of the firm’s marketing department, said: “After John had dropped this bombshell our two brilliant salesmen went off into the crowd with raffle tickets and champagne buckets, fully expecting our lovely staff to do their bit.

“What we didn’t expect was just how much this would mean to them.

“With the company doubling the amount raised, we achieved a total over £5,000 in less than 20 minutes.

“There were some extraordinary acts of kindness.

“Our Morecambe branch team which had just won £500 to share between them, put every penny back into the raffle, and the eventual winner Jack Oldham, our Barrow branch marketing adviser, generously returned the prize.

“We’ve done lots of fundraising things before but now this feels personal and we really want to do whatever we can to support John and his family to beat this disease and get our colleague back.

“John worked full-time until Christmas and will be undergoing some ground-breaking stem cell treatment at the Royal Liverpool University hospital and the RLI.

“As John starts his treatment, he does so knowing his friends and colleagues are behind him.”

She added: “We’ll be continuing our fundraising efforts this year and hope our clients will be happy to help out, but we’d also like to help to raise the profile of the Bloodwise charity and their life-saving work.”

EYE joins with his colleagues in wishing the courageous Shellcross the very best. We are thinking of you.