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Leeds Live
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Jake Brigstock & Jasmine Norden

Family's heartbroken tribute to Leeds United football fan, 22, who died from rare cancer

A heartbroken Leeds family are paying tribute to a young man who tragically died after a battle with a rare form of bone cancer.

Matthew Hollingworth, 22, died on February 16 after being diagnosed with osteosarcoma in his left shoulder in November 2019.

He moved to Allerton Bywater, within the City of Leeds borough, when he was seven years old, and was described by his family as a loving and caring person, NottinghamshireLive reports.

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Matthew's twin brother Jonathan, 22, said: "There's no other person in my life, and there will be no other person like him.

"Anything we did would be together, and everyone that knew him had the pleasure of doing so, he was generous and kind even through to his last day.

"Last summer was fantastic in that we could enjoy the Euros, and we were happy we were able to get that because of his treatment.

"I want to thank everyone at the university and his mates that knew him, they were the best times of his life."

Before moving to Allerton Bywater, the Hollingworth family had lived in Burton-on-Trent.

Matthew attended Brigshaw High School in Castleford, where he played trombone for the school Brass Band and with the Garforth Jubilee band. He also completed his Duke of Edinburgh award while at school.

He achieved straights A*s and As in both his A-Levels and GCSEs, before going on to study Mathematics at the University of Nottingham.

Matthew was a huge fan of Nottingham Forest football team, where his Dad Gary used to take him and his brothers regularly.

Matthew was originally cleared of cancer in 2020 but tumours sadly resurged on his lungs in 2021 (Hollingworth family)

Matthew was in his second year of university in November 2019 when he was diagnosed with osteosarcoma. He had to suspend his studies as treatment began in 2020.

He moved back to Allerton Bywater to receive treatment at St James' Hospital. Scans showed Matthew's left arm and shoulder had been damaged to such an extent by the cancer they could not be saved, and the cancer had also spread to his lungs.

He had his left arm and most of his shoulder amputated in April 2020.

This was followed by surgery to remove the tumours on his lungs, which resulted in Matthew being temporarily cleared of cancer.

He went back to university to continue living his life, but a scan in September 2021 showed tumours had returned to his lung. He started treatment quickly in October 2021, however, Mathew picked up an infection that hindered the treatment.

After battling the tumours, Matthew sadly died on February 16 this year.

His Dad Gary, 53, said: "It's still very raw and sad, and we're getting on as best as we can."

Gary added that Matthew had been able to get to a few Nottingham Forest Games and he was very sad to not be able to see them play a big Premier League club. Matthew's favourite player on the team was Joe Worrall.

Gary added: "We want to raise as much awareness of this rare type of cancer as possible."

Matthew's family is hoping Nottingham Forest will display a photo of Matthew on the big screen in the 22nd minute of play and follow it with a minute's applause to pay tribute to him.

His older brother Daniel, 23, said: "Matthew was such an intelligent, funny, lovely person.

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"We went to Forest all the time and I went to the University of Nottingham too, studying psychology, and I was in my third year when Matthew was in his first.

"One of the best nights we had was in Bierkeller, as we hadn't planned to meet up and it was fresher's week, but we bumped into each other and just had a real fun night.

"Me, Matthew and my dad all had season tickets, and my favourite memories were the Derby games as we tended to win those, along with that 2-0 win against Leeds United a couple of seasons ago.

"It would mean so much to see the tribute, especially to me and my dad, and for our mum to see it too and seeing the applause would be lovely, that would be a lovely tribute for him."

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