Yorkshire grandparents quit their jobs and sold their home to backpack around the world

Tina Waddle, 58, and her husband, Kevin, 65, packed in their careers when they realised they had "more years of their lives behind them than what was left in front".

The couple sold their £218k three-bedroom house in Leeds, West Yorkshire, and most of their belongings, bought a motorhome, and embarked on a journey around the world.

Their adventures included hitchhiking along the Argentina-Chile border in Patagonia, scaling glaciers in Iceland, and riding camels across the Sahara desert.

All was well until Kevin was diagnosed with anal cancer in March this year - bringing the couple's global adventures to an immediate halt.

Tina, a former NHS worker, from Leeds, said: "We were in Morocco in January when Kev told me he had some worrying symptoms.

"We realised we needed to go back home and have it properly checked.

“When we arrived back in the UK in March, we went to the doctors and found out Kev has cancer.

“Of course the immediate thought was 'where are we going to live while he goes through chemo?'.

"We don’t have a house, the tumour was growing bigger by the day - Kev needed somewhere stable to rest and recuperate.

"Luckily, we know some really fantastic, supportive people and have house-sitting arrangements in place until September.

"Some time after that - as soon as Kev's feeling fit and well - we'll be off backpacking again."

Tina and Kevin, a telecommunications worker, used to live a "typical family life" with their son, Scott, 36 and daughter, Steph, 31.

But in 2016, Kevin realised something needed to change when a friend quit his job to live in Paris and suffered a heart attack and died before he was able to complete the move.

Tina said: "I remember Kev saying to me one day 'I have more years behind me than what’s left in front'.

"He wanted to do more, he wanted us to sell the house and make some money to buy a motorhome and just go travelling.

"I was really unsure - I'd never stayed in a motorhome, let alone thought about travelling round in one.

"But there was always the thought that 'if it all goes wrong, we can just start again'."

In March, Kevin was told he had anal cancer.

He needs a course of chemotherapy which will begin on July 1 at St James’s Hospital in Leeds and last for five-and-a-half weeks.

Kevin said: "Just think how I would feel now if we hadn’t taken the plunge 10 years ago to see more of the world.

"I would have worked all my life looking forward to my retirement in July, only to be told 'you have cancer'.

"My point is, do not put your life on hold thinking 'I'll do that later' and, as the old cliches go, 'never put off until tomorrow what you can do today', because tomorrow never comes."