A man who beat cancer as a boy says climbing Mount Everest has saved his life for a second time.

Jordan Chhetri was just 13, he was treated for stage four non-Hodgkin lymphoma at Southampton General Hospital's Piam Brown unit in 2009.

His chance of survival was 20 per cent, as the cancer was 14 by nine inches across his chest.

But after he was given his cancer-all-clear, post nine months of intense treatment, Jordan said his life spiralled - as he got into drinking, partying and 'killing his health' through junk food.

After looking in the mirror one day at 29-years-old and 'not liking who he saw' Jordan decided to 'take back control' and change his life for the better - by getting into exercise, training and eventually deciding to partake in the ultimate mission: climbing Mount Everest.

Now 30, Jordan, from Fleet, Hampshire, smashed the challenge and raised over £6,300 for the hospital that supported him with treatment to beat cancer.

He has also set up 'Perform With Purpose' - a social page which aims to inspire his followers to "find their purpose, and live to perform for it"."

Jordan recalls: "When I was 13, I was hit with the three words no one wants to hear, 'you've got cancer', and after that it was a lot of white noise for me. "

"I could go two ways: one, be sad, depressed and be negative or go the other way and think 'OK, I've got to get over this little hurdle and then get on with my life'. "

"So when all my family were crying, I just stood up and said 'let's get this sorted, go to Southampton and get this done , because I have things I wanna do with my life."

"But that was my first purpose - to beat cancer, even though I didn't know it at the time, and even though I didn't know I was going to survive it."

After nine months of intense treatment, Jordan admitted just wanting to go out with his friends - as he missed a lot of his education due to cancer.

He said: "I went out drinking, and looking back did lots of stupid stuff - killing my health, getting fat and lazy."

"I wasn't in a good way."

At 28-years-old, Jordan had a heart-to-heart with his dad and decided he wanted to turn his life around.

He said: "I had to reflect on my life."

"After the conversation with dad, I went home and looked in the mirror, turned off all the outside noise, and asked myself where is your life going, what do you want to do with your life?"

"And I couldn't answer. I wasn't holding myself accountable and I knew I needed to change."

Jordan started going to the gym with his brother, and decided he wanted to do something 'crazy' - so his dad introduced him to Nirmal Purja MBE, a Nepal-born naturalised British mountaineer, and it was agreed he would embark on an epic journey to Nepal.

Nirmal served as a Gurkha, was in the UKSF (United Kingdom Special Forces) and guided Jordan to the top of Aconcagua, the tallest mountain outside of Asia - helping him to learn "the best tips and how to survive Everest"."

Having followed a rigorous training programme for 12 months of getting up at 2:45am five times a week for a 10 mile run, exercising everyday - despite not being able to run 100 metres before this - Jordan set off in March and documented every stage of the journey on his Perform With Purpose Instagram page.

He spent two-and-a-half weeks at Base Camp, waiting for the right weather conditions, before finally being given the go ahead to proceed to the summit.

Jordan admitted: "I was scared every single step of the way but the fact is I was faking bravery to be brave!"

"I was doing these things because like I said with cancer, 'if I die, so be it, but I'm doing it for a good cause, for my cause."

"But you can be scared and still be brave."

He said the Khumbu Icefall, which sits just above Base Camp, was the most dangerous part of Everest - and with injuries to his knee and extreme fatigue, Jordan also saw three dead bodies along the treacherous route.

Jordan said the icefall went through multiple rotations, and the landscape changed frequently - distorting routes, creating new crevasses, ladder crosses - so the team had so move very quickly or risk being killed.

He said: "I remember a huge rock fall happened, and at one point we stopped to have a bite to eat - if we hadn't, we would have been so close to that rock fall."

"It was so dangerous, and I just kept thinking 'bloody hell!'"

"There were times when the team thought I was going to give up - but I wanted to reach the summit by any means possible."

Just before reaching the top of the South Summit, Jordan described how there lay a dead body from 2018 in front of him - and to get to the top, he was told to step on the body's back to get up, but he refused.

He explained: "There was an easy route and a hard route - but I refused to stand on this guy's back, it was just too disrespectful, so I went the hard way and I was so out of breath."

Upon reaching the summit, Jordan recalls dropping to his knees and said: "Mum, Dad, I've made it."

"I did the world's tallest mountain, and we made the summit."

Though the journey down the mountain was not without its difficulties - as he came across the same dead body on Hilary Step, a vertical cliff face near the summit, and as he was left stunned by the morbid sight, Jordan tripped and fell 15 metres - 'dangling upside down on a cliff face'.

Having overcome so many challenges, Jordan said what he had accomplished 'had still not hit him' - but he was immensely proud of the money raised for the Hospital that saved his life.

Jordan added: "As a cancer survivor, people always say you're lucky, they label you as a cancer survivor - but you don't have to be labelled like that - it all starts with yourself. "

"If you put dedication, hard work and effort into achieve whatever your Mount Everest is, you can achieve anything, because anything is possible."

"I want people to understand it's not just 'I can't do that', because you can, you are just thinking of reasons why you can't."

"You can."

"Have a sit down and think about what you want to do, where you want to be, and if it's aligning great, but if it's not, then do it: run, gym, build confidence, it gives you a foundation that you can do things on your own. "

"I wanted to build a platform for people to get inspired by my journey, and inspire themselves - if I can inspire one person in life then I'm happy."

You can follow Jordan here: https://www.instagram.com/performwithpurpose2023/