Drum Major Graham Winters was told five years ago he had weeks to live - yet he is gearing up for the 2010 season.

Graham, at one point, dropped to just six and a half stone in weight, and was told by a leading UK cancer specialist he had one of the rarest tumours and aggressive forms of cancer he'd ever seen.

Yet Graham continues to defy the medical experts and is fighting on.

Known to friends as 'Snowy', the 35-year-old, originally from Tullibody, was told in the winter of 2005 that he wouldn't survive beyond his birthday, which was just months away.

Graham told the Advertiser, "Professor Cassidy, from the Beatson Cancer Centre in Glasgow, asked me how frank he should be about my situation?" Being a no nonsense guy himself, Graham told the Professor to be straight with him.

The response from the Professor was devastating - "The tumour is one of the rarest we have ever seen. The mucus on the surface of your bowel has been sent away for testing and they said it is like liquid cancer - you have five to six months at most." His girlfriend Pam Innes, who has been Graham's rock through it all, was by his side when the tragic prognosis was delivered.

Graham said, "I looked down and thought there was no point in crying and started thinking about my friends and family and how they would react, rather than me. I was worried about Pam," The couple returned home to their house in Clackmannan and the next step was to inform those closest to him.

And the gallows humour of his closest pals, who came round to size up what they would inherit after Graham's death, made him laugh and helped him through at that difficult time.

Before the cancer was discovered, Graham had no history of serious illness and doctors looked at his one page of medical history in disbelief.

It had been a shock to him too, he'd barely caught a cold before, and believed his initial weight loss months earlier was down to the stress of work.

After years in the army air corps and special forces, when he had seen service around the world, Graham was living in Clackmannan and working at the Jarvie Plant, Grangemouth, when the weight loss began.

"I was with my girlfriend at that time and we had just moved to Clackmannan when I started to lose a lot of weight.

"I thought it was stress-related as it was Christmas time and I was doing a lot of overtime at Jarvie to earn money to make home improvements." It became clear it wasn't stress, though, when walking with Pam in Stirling he began to suffer terrible pains. Literally unable to walk another step, he was rushed to hospital.

A blood test revealed he had only four and a half pints of blood, about half the normal amount, and doctors found a tumour in his bowel which had punctured and gone into the stomach - it was 15cm in size.

The surgeons and specialists had to brainstorm how to get the tumour out, and the medical team gave him four pints of blood before operating.

"They will remove it and I will move on," was Graham's reaction to it all.

However, his subsequent trip to the Beatson with Pam brought the news he had just months to live.

Miraculously, though, Graham began to get stronger as the months passed and he was even able to walk down and see his pals at the Bowmar Pipe Band, where he had been a drummer as a teenager.

"I enjoyed it as a youngster. I wasn't one for standing on street corners as I wanted to do things with my life," said Graham.

When asked about his subscription money as he walked into the Bowmar, he joked, "Can I pay it up monthly?" After the operations he had been through, proved too difficult for him to hold the drum again, but there was another option - becoming a drum major.

Being head of a band demands leadership and decision making qualities few possess, but Graham was determined to find out more.

He contacted Billy Jordan, recognised as one of the best instructors in the world and whose services are sought after throughout Europe and the USA, who was based near Loch Lomond.

Billy became his teacher and friend, and just a few years on, Graham is a champion Drum Major supporting three bands - Denny and Dunipace, Alloa Bowmar and Balaklava.

He started competing four years ago and improved year-on-year to the point that his living room today is best described as looking like Manchester United's trophy room.

But in the middle of all the success, the former Lornshill Academy student was dealt a blow on 18 February last year - Pam's birthday - when he began feeling unwell again and had to go to the hospital.

"A big tumour was found," said Graham. "I just screamed." At the time, he'd been excelling in competition and was on the brink of making major finals - it was a nightmare blow.

Amazingly, during the five weeks of radio and chemotherapy, Graham was determined to compete, and did so, coming third in Dunbar.

The doctors asked him to rest, but just two months after undergoing another major operation, he was performing again, this time in Germany, at the Fulda Military Tattoo.

The tattoo programme was an energy shattering experience for Graham and his amazing effort was recognised by his peers.

All the other drum majors agreed to give him an award for his dedication and professionalism and presented a plaque - the only one of its kind - to an emotional Graham.

After returning home he was given the bandsman of the year award by Denny and Dunipace, and in February this year he was presented with the outstanding contribution to the arts award at the Clackmannanshire Citizen of the Year ceremony.

Falkirk Council also recently presented him an award for being the best drum major in a military tattoo.

The cancer is still there, and Graham has a fight on his hands, but he's determined to keep going.

And he has already signed up to compete in the drum majoring season ahead ...