HEARTBROKEN family and friends of teenager Daniel Berry have had their worlds shattered after doctors discovered his leukaemia has returned.

The bad news comes exactly six months after Daniel, who celebrated his 18th birthday in October, underwent a bone marrow transplant and seemed to be on the road to recovery.

The Berrys, of Crosby Grove, Atherton, should be celebrating the end of Daniel's treatment and looking forward to the future, but instead they are back in the same position as they were in February -- waiting for doctors to make life-saving decisions while Daniel lies poorly in hospital. Doctors at Salford's Hope Hospital made the discovery that the leukaemia was back after Daniel struggled to shake off a cold.

His parents, Elaine and Gary's asked doctors to check his blood count and they found the cancer cells had returned.

Mrs Berry said: "We had meetings with everyone involved and they decided it's pointless him having more chemotherapy, since the cancer has returned.

"There is nothing else available in this country, which means the only other option is clinical trials in Texas."

But Daniel is too ill to travel for the treatment in America. The family is now being forced to play a agonising waiting game to see if the specialist treatment, which is unlicensed in this country, can be sent over from America.

Mrs Berry said: "It had to be Daniel's decision whether to go ahead with it and it was heart-breaking to ask him.

"He said he wanted to try because if he didn't it would be like giving up and he has been so strong throughout he's not prepared to do that now.

"It seems so unfair. We are all in shock, we thought we had done it.

"We thought there was a future, now we are in a state of limbo, just waiting."