HIS dreams of becoming a champion were shot down after suffering three collapsed lungs in just three-years.

But now, after battling back from yet another painful spell on the sidelines, engineer Tristan Symes is back out on the water competing with the very best.

For former Barton Peveril College student Tristan his life had always been about rowing.

And after suffering a collapsed lung in December 2013, the 23-year-old thought his life back on the water would be plain sailing. But it wasn’t.

“He just woke up one morning and couldn’t breathe,” Tristan’s mum Rosemary said.

“I could hear him coughing and Tristan said he thought it was another collapsed lung – we couldn’t believe it.”

This was October 2015. And after having a further operation on his lung in February 2016, yet another hole in his lung was found.

Rosemary said that the chances of them finding another collapsed lung after the operation would be 20 per cent – and 80 per cent if they didn’t.

And for avid sportsman Tristan, who rows for Southampton Rowing’s Coalporters Amateur Rowing Club, the knocks and setbacks became tougher and tougher.

He said: “It’s the most uncomfortable pain I have ever experienced – there is a breathlessness and the worst feeling is the chest strains.

“All I had done for the last eight-years was rowing, so to not have it was so difficult.”

Tristan added: “Thankfully my team are so supportive of me but there is a mental scarring of what happened to me.

“Sometimes I need to take a step back and let myself calm down after a session but when you have a team like mine, it’s easy to do that.”

After coming back to the water in May 2016, he and his team, made up of rowers Lanty Chafer, Harry Aitchison and Zach Williams, coach Peter Wells and cox Lisa Bedford, targeted becoming the first Coalporters crew to row at the prestigious Henley Royal Regatta for 20-years.

The feat was achieved this year and although they just missed out on a place at the top of the leader board losing to an Australian team made up of three international rowers, the Mott MacDonald engineer’s remarkable recovery was complete.

But for Rosemary, there is always an underlying worry about her son.

“I am extremely proud of him,” Rosemary said.

“But I am always on tenterhooks to be honest each time he goes out on to the water. For him to have that operation in February and be back out on the water training again in May is exceptional but to do as well as he did last month is incredible.

“It’s a worry as a parent thought because sometimes he won’t admit he’s in pain.”

Tristan added: “But for me it’s just perfect being back out

rowing and competing with my friends.”