Lying in bed with sweat pooling on his chest, Wayne Fletcher felt sure the flu-like symptoms that had plagued him for weeks were more than a winter bug.
As a keen cyclist with no history of health problems, it was unusual for him to feel anything other than fighting fit.
‘I had no idea what the matter was,’ recalls the 49-year-old father of two from Scunthorpe. ‘As well as feeling under the weather, I’d wake up every night drenched in sweat. I’d been prescribed antibiotics, but I was sure there was more to it.’