A young doctor diagnosed last month with terminal cancer has already raised more than £20,000 from his hospital bed to support other sufferers.

Mark Sims, 27, of Wimbledon, a doctor at St Helier Hospital in Sutton, was inspired to join the medical profession after surviving skin cancer as a teenager.

But last month he discovered the disease was back after he got a bad stomach ache on Pancake Day and was later referred by his GP to Kingston Hospital.

"My diagnosis is a shock and my story may show you this can happen to just about anyone", he wrote on his JustGiving page from his hospital bed at the Royal Marsden in Chelsea.

"The week started well waking up on Monday morning a bit stiff from a 10 mile run I did the day before, I was training for a half marathon.

"On Tuesday whilst celebrating pancake day with copious amounts of pancakes I noticed I had 3/10 abdominal pain on my right side.

"By the morning despite co-codamol I was barely able to move due to the pain.

"Being a doctor I refused to misuse an ambulance or A&E so stumbled to my GP who one look at me and a touch of my abdomen and referred me to Kingston Hospital for further investigation for suspected acute cholecystitis."

But an ultrasound later that day revealed the skin cancer had returned and the pain was caused by a moderate size tumour in his liver, with further tumours in his lung and spleen.

Mr Sims, originally from Bristol, is now awaiting a liver biopsy to establish which targeted melanoma therapies he can have.

He has already received more than 700 donations from both friends and strangers for Cancer Research UK.

You can donate on his JustGiving page.

Do you know Mark? Contact Louisa on 020 8722 6335, or email louisa.clarence@london.newsquest.co.uk.