A fight begins

Adam Thomas is a 36-year-old Leeds United fan with a 50k-strong Instagram following and a further 10k followers on the site formerly known as Twitter.

Once upon a time Adam's dad Mike grew so irritated with missing out on the goals and incidents from Leeds games while on holiday that he began to obtain clips and started anonymous social media pages under the moniker WALMOT [We are Leeds Marching on Together] on which to post them for others.

Adding Adam Pope's BBC Leeds commentary to the footage added a unique something that struck a chord with supporters as a following grew. Mike died in 2019 at the age of 50 from bowel cancer and Adam picked up the WALMOT baton. 

Adam with ex-Leeds man Gjanni Alioski 

He jokes that his dad lived in fear of the front door being kicked in over copyright issues and has had his Twitter account deleted more than a few times. But the audience remains. Mike and latterly Adam have made WALMOT a staple of the online culture around Leeds United. The likes of Kalvin Phillips, Mateusz Klich, Pablo Hernandez and Gjanni Alioski all follow the Instagram page. Leeds co-owner Larry Nance Jnr follows Adam on x.com. 

This morning Adam started chemotherapy.

"I started getting shoulder pains in June and thought I'd pulled something," he told the YEP.

"I was just resting but it got progressively worse so I went to A&E. They thought it was my gallbladder, my symptoms pointed to that and they put me on a waiting list for an ultrasound. I just felt unwell after that, like I had the flu every day, so I went to my GP and asked is this normal and he said yeah, so I continued to wait.

"I'd been waiting about four or five weeks for the ultrasound and got told it'd be another four weeks, so I paid for a private one. I went for that and I got a phone call from my GP later that day calling me in, saying they'd seen something on my liver."

Adam was put on a cancer pathway as a precautionary measure to ensure the findings were followed up with haste. A CT scan followed and it confirmed that he had an unknown primary cancer which had spread to his liver.

"I didn't know unknown primaries were a thing," he said. "They were trying to find where it was coming from. During that time the consultant theorised what I had, that my liver tumours had metastasized. It's a really nasty one. I spent weeks waiting, had another biopsy, an endoscopy and they found cancer in my esophagus that hadn't shown up on the CT scan because it was too small. That's now my primary. They confirmed it, told me it's a poor prognosis, that it's incurable basically."

A father to eight-year-old Theo, six-year-old Louis and two-year-old Brody and fiance to Liz, Adam struggled initially to process and respond to what he had been told.

Adam with his three boys

"I spent two or three weeks completely vacant," he said. "I wasn't here, I wasn't dealing with it at all. I have three small boys, my partner, and it wasn't easy. I had a word with myself, saw my GP and thought I can carry on like this and just accept it, or just keep going.

"I had a good conversation with an oncologist nurse. I told her I just kept feeling this impending doom all the time and said there were no positives and she said: "Adam you've been offered treatment, that's positive because if you were any older than you are, you wouldn't be offered treatment because your body wouldn't be able to handle it." They are giving me chemotherapy and the hope is it prolongs the period of time I've got."

Another struggle came with the debate over whether or not to share the news publicly to the thousands of people who follow but don't really know him on social media. But once he did, the hard exterior fell away from the Leeds United support and they yet again showed who and what they really are.

"Last week I was toiling in my head about sharing it - I'm not the type of person that wants that sort of attention - but my dad died about five years ago and no one really knew who he was, he was a well known social media person around the Leeds Twitter and Facebook scene," Adam told the YEP.

"He got aggressive bowel cancer at 50 and died. Afterwards I wanted people to know who he was and I thought back to that and just thought I'd put a message out. I had been vacant on some of my pages and felt a bit guilty that I'd had a lot of messages asking where I was and what I'd been up to. So I told everyone. 

"I've had a massive response. I've had a lot of people message me and ask if they can do anything. One guy was insistent, so I set a page up and it spun out of control to the point where I was talking to Larry Nance Jnr on Instagram last night. He's donated to it and he's sending my sons jerseys of his team and wants to do more. But I've just said at the minute I'm okay.

"It's really picked me up, it keeps me going because I've got a fight ahead of me now. I've got three months of chemo, intense chemo. I've just got to stay positive."

Leeds United has been part of Adam's life for as long as he can remember, despite growing up and living in Nottingham. His dad, like so many all over the world, fell in love with Don Revie's boys in white in the 1970s. Mike would give Adam the choice of supporting one of the local clubs - Forest, Notts County or Mansfield - or Leeds and a first trip to Elland Road cemented in the youngster's head and heart that the latter was the correct choice.

"I can remember from the first time I went to Elland Road, it gets you," he said. "Everyone knows me as Adam the Leeds fan, but there are loads of us in Nottingham, we are everywhere. We used to come up quite a lot. We had a season ticket during Bielsa's first season, we had one when Warnock was here and that was interesting. Since losing my dad it's a bit weird going up there without him but I follow from afar all the time.

Adam's sons at Elland Road

"My dad died February before the play-off final against Derby. I remember when we lost I was in a pub in Nottingham with my mum and I completely broke down crying and she was like 'you're not that upset are you, it's only football' but it was about my dad, it was for him. I spent the whole summer wondering if Bielsa would stay and then he did. It was almost like he almost became a step-dad.

"Whenever I listened to him - I used to get the videos from his talks with the translations - everything he said, he just made the club better. He was an amazing person and he got me through some dark times and he doesn't even know who I am. I was gutted when he left."

Adam's relationship with Leeds United has continued to live out through the social media accounts and a relationship with a vast, grateful audience. 

"My dad started doing the social media pages when it was all in its infancy," said Adam. "Back in the day it was so difficult, but he just put up clips of games so that when something happened, people who weren't there and couldn't watch would see it straight away.

"We'd get Popey's commentary over it, because you never get to hear it with the goals and people would love that. It's such a simple thing now but back then it was just something people couldn't do.

"He did it and I picked it up when he stopped. I've had messages from people in Singapore, Malaysia, Chicago, the middle of nowhere, saying without my Instagram they wouldn't see anything."

Adam with ex-Leeds man Gjanni Alioski

That audience has come through for Adam over the past week, bucking the trend on at least one social media platform.

"Twitter over the last 12 months has become very, very toxic," he said. "People go on there, they want to look at Leeds stuff and then see stuff they don't want to see and it winds them up. And if Leeds aren't doing well it compounds it. I was beginning to lose faith in it to be honest. And then I put the messages out about having cancer. 

"My dad used to say Leeds fans are nuts. When anything like this happens, the emotion that comes out of Leeds fans is incredible. My sister sits every night and reads people's messages who have replied to me. It really picks her up. People message saying they were given three months to live and are still here three years later, you can do it. You think if they can do it, I can do it. 

"I kind of knew it might happen because I have faith in Leeds fans. If I walk down the road with a Leeds top on I get the salute. I've been to Malaysia and seen someone with a Leeds shirt. You feel obliged to talk to them, I don't know if two Man Utd fans see each other in Malaysia if they feel the need to talk to each other or like they know that person. That's just the way our club is."

Leeds fans are rarely, if ever, backwards about coming forwards. Adam, who isn't able to work right now but has continued to take his boys to football and do the school runs to stay as active as possible, went into his first chemotherapy treatment in the possession of countless words of wisdom and experience from his fellow Whites.

"I've had so many messages from Leeds fans who have had it, so much advice, hundreds of pieces of advice," he said.

"My age is on my side when it comes to the chemo. [The consultant] said you could cope with it reasonably well, you might not. It's quite intensive. I have to take chemo tablets in between my actual chemo, so I'm getting bashed constantly by it. But because I've been ill for so long I'm kind of excited about it, they seem to think it will alleviate some of my symptoms.

"It's the first medical intervention I'll have had. I'm very nervous but I'm also hopeful that it's going to do something, which is the main aim."

When it comes to time frames and a prognosis Adam doesn't really want to know until he has to know, because that knowledge cannot help him. He Googled it once, but wants to stay positive. And there are things to look forward to. Like getting married or watching Leeds United.

Adam and Liz will get married this year

"Obviously [Liz] watched me go through two or three weeks of real mental breakdown and she's really been there for me," he said. "And then I got better and she had her moment, which was always going to happen. At the minute we're just both so positive.

"Every day is what we're dealing with, we get up in the morning and it's about that day. It's not about six months, 12 months, it's about now. We're just approaching it like that. 

"We had the conversation after I started the gofundme and we're going to get married this side of Christmas. We've been engaged for five years. She wants to get married so we're going to do that. We've not got a date yet but the sooner the better. It'll only be a small thing, close family and friends.

"It's something you put off when you've bought a house and had three kids. I always wanted to do something very special for Liz, she wanted to go abroad and get married on a beach but you put it off because you need the money and stuff. Now our mindset has completely changed, it's just something we want to do and it doesn't matter how it comes about. So that's what we'll be doing."

When it comes to his football club, Adam's mindset has altered slightly too. Last Friday night was the perfect example of how 'emotional' the club can be. Illan Meslier was beaten by the bounce of a ball in the very last seconds of what seemed destined to be a 2-1 away win at Sunderland.

The reaction was, predictably, thermo-nuclear. And while Adam couldn't quite believe his eyes, he has a new perspective on the game and the role it plays in his life.

"My son was watching in the lounge on Sky and I was at my computer on Sky Sports app," he said. "I was about a minute behind. My missus had just come in from work at 10 and asked if we were winning and I said yeah. Then I shouted through to the lounge 'is it done yet?' I was on edge as we always are, trying to see a game out. She said they'd just scored, I'm looking at my screen and seeing they've got a free-kick and thinking 'Oh God what's happened here?' 

"But I'm not angry at him [Meslier]. Probably last season I would have been fuming but my perspective now, it doesn't bother me. I look forward to Leeds every time they play now. I'm a bit gutted about the international break, having chemo and no game to watch at the weekend."

Adam won't have too long to wait for his next Leeds United fix. They return from the international break at the earliest possible opportunity, hosting Sheffield United at Elland Road on Friday October 18.

They're all big games when you're Leeds United, but this one will take on extra meaning. It's a local derby. The Blades are flying. Both sides are expected to challenge for promotion this season. Leeds need to escape the Championship this season, before it becomes even harder to do so. And as Adam begins his fight, he believes his football club will win their own.

"I do think we're alright at the minute," he said. "Two points was alright last week. On reflection, I don't think the league is as strong and once we kick into gear, once Farke gets them into gear we'll be alright - even with the injuries [in midfield]. Watching [Joe] Rothwell and [Ao] Tanaka, I was quite relaxed about it to be fair.

"I think we'll be challenging. From what I've seen, from Burnley and the other teams we've played up there, I don't think they've got what we've got. I think last season was a freak, any other season we'd have gone up but it's the Leeds way isn't it? Of course we're not going to go up on that many points, it's Leeds. But I don't think anyone will get near that total this season, Farke will be thinking two points a game and I think that'll be enough. I really do."