A pub is raising much-needed funds after one of its customers was struck down with a rare form of cancer.

Lee Smith is being treated in a London hospital after being diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia before Christmas.

The carpenter drinks in and plays football for the Heights of Alma, Alma Street, Sheerness.

Landlady Rachel Hinton says the pub is getting right behind the 33-year-old.

Various fundraising efforts are being organised to raise money to support Lee’s family and to help them cover travelling costs.

A raffle and blind auction will be held at the pub at 2pm on Sunday, February 7.

Prizes include a pair of tickets to an Arsenal match and a pair to see Charlton Athletic play.

There will also be a sponsored walk where five regulars at the pub each walk a leg of 50 miles visiting football grounds including Arsenal’s Emirates Stadium, Charlton’s The Valley and Gillingham’s Priestfield.

Lee’s fiancee Claire Wells, of Invicta Road, Sheerness, said: “I don’t know how to go about thanking people for what they have done. No thanks is ever going to be enough. It’s very overwhelming to see how much people think of us.”

The couple, who have a seven-year-old son, Hayden, got engaged in November. Claire said: “He proposed to me on top of the Shard in London on my birthday.

“It was overwhelming. I was a wreck. We went to see a show beforehand and then we went to eat in the restaurant afterwards.

“A month later we’ve done a complete turnaround.”

On December 20, Lee was transferred from Medway Maritime Hospital to King’s College Hospital, where he remains.

Claire, a 31-year-old sales assistant at Tesco, Gillingham, said: “My work and manager have been fantastic. I took Hayden up to the hospital over Christmas so he could open his presents with his dad. I don’t want this to be a taboo subject with him, he knows he can ask questions.”

Among the efforts, Claire’s friends have set up a Just Giving page to raise £2,000 to cover the family’s finances.

Acute lymphoblastic leukaemia is cancer of the white blood cells.

Warning signs of the disease come in the form of pale skin, tiredness, breathlessness, having repeated infections over a short space of time, and unusual and frequent bleeding.

This form of the disease affects 8,600 people in the UK every year.

The main problem is when the bone marrow starts releasing immature white blood cells into people’s systems.

Main causes include exposure to high levels of high radiation and exposure to benzene, a chemical used in manufacturing that is also found in cigarettes.

Acute lymphoblastic leukaemia is cancer of the white blood cells.Warning signs of the disease come in the form of pale skin, tiredness, breathlessness, having repeated infections over a short space of time, and unusual and frequent bleeding.

This form of the disease affects 8,600 people in the UK every year.The main problem is when the bone marrow starts releasing immature white blood cells into people’s systems.

Main causes include exposure to high levels of high radiation and exposure to benzene, a chemical used in manufacturing that is also found in cigarettes.