KIND-HEARTED Newport students have been busy raising money for charity in the name of a former school friend who is battling cancer.

Seventeen-year-old Daniel Woodward, from Newport, was diagnosed with Lymphoma at the beginning of November.

After hearing the news, his friends at Lliswerry High School were inspired to raise money for the Teenage Cancer Trust as well as the teenage cancer unit at the hospital where Daniel, affectionately known by his friends as Woody, is being treated.

The sixth-formers have already raised nearly £1,400 by organising cross-dressing cat walks and selling wrist bands at Lliswerry and other schools in Newport, to raise funds and awareness of Daniel’s rare form of cancer.

And on Wednesday, the students persuaded 11 Lliswerry teachers to be gunged in a bid to increase their funds.

Daniel left Lliswerry in the summer and had started a welding course at Nash College, which he has now had to postpone.

His mother Julie Woodward, 46, said: “It’s fabulous what they’re doing. I’ve got all these mums ringing me up and one of his friends is organising a do in January that’s going to be quite a big event and there’s a 12 hour darts marathon raising money too.

“I think it’s absolutely marvellous. The amount they’ve raised so far is unbelievable.”

Daniel is currently having chemotherapy every day at the University Hospital of Wales in Cardiff.

Mrs Woodward added: “It (the cancer) has gone straight to his chest, head and back.

"The cancer he has does affect the brain but he’s in good form. He’s in a good place a the moment, you wouldn’t know he was ill.

“He started off with a bad cough and he had big lump on his chest.

“We went to the GP and had a chest X-ray and we were sent straight to the Heath. He’d had it 12 weeks before.

“He obviously was very upset when he heard but he’s a teenager and he’s just taking it in his stride.”

Friend Amber Danaher, 16 – one of the student fundraising organisers at Lliswerry – said she grew up with Daniel.

“It was a shock to everyone so we all decided that we should start fundraising to make everyone aware of the cancer,” she said. “He didn’t expect how much his friends would be on board.”