So what would be your message to young men now?

They just be aware that testicular cancer is out there and it might only be 1,700 cases last year and 86 men died, but there is a good chance of cure, a 98% chance of cure. If they catch it early enough, report it early enough, and get treated early enough, then 6 months down the line they’ll be feeling as fit and healthy as they ever did. And theres no problem with one testicle or two testicles you’re still the same person, everything still works and just not to be afraid or frightened of what’s coming up. The longer you leave it the worst it can be.

But to be honest with you, a message to other men is you know your own body, the doctor can feel you but he doesn’t know your own body. You can feel perhaps a bit of pain, you can feel yourself what it’s like because you’ve been doing it, if you’re checking yourself regularly and you’re doing it every day, if a lump does appear you know it’s going to be different.

And the main message really is to men is you know, if you’re in the bath it takes you 2 minutes to check yourself if you don’t want to do it yourself get the other half to do it, make it perhaps a little bit more enjoyable (laughs). But, and if, you know if you’re regularly checking yourself, perhaps every day, and then if you do come across something that is slightly different you’ll know then because you’ve been checking yourself before and you feel something is slightly odd, go straight to the GP, and to be honest with you now always ask for a referral if you’re not happy with the GP’s explanation to see a specialist.

Well basically the way to examine yourself is the best time to do is when you’ve had a shower or a bath because the scrotum, the skin is loose, so the testicles hang down. And if you just rub them lightly between your fingers you can obviously feel through the skin to the testicle and it should be smooth. Round the back is the epididymis I think it’s called (laughs) er and that is like, it’s kind of like a tube affair. That is normal, if you feel that that is what that is. But a cancerous lump if you find one, is usually on the side or the front of the testicle. It can be on the back but it usually the side or the front apparently and it will feel like a raised area on the testicle itself. It will feel hard as well, it won’t have the same sort of give as the testicle will have. And in my case it felt like a walnut shell, bumpy and rough, and if you feel anything like that you need to see a GP and get it examined and get an opinion on that.

Yeah if theres a lump there it doesn’t really matter what is causing that lump, it shouldn’t be there and you need to get it sorted it out. Don’t take no for an answer and have the courage of your convictions because you are more in tune with your body than you realise and you will instinctively know if you need to get something done about it. I would say that everything I’ve gone through subsequently, yes they found that it was testicular cancer, and they found that it was a seminoma which required radiotherapy and not a teratoma which required chemotherapy. Treatments have changed and the way that people are being treated these days is sometimes a lot more, a lot less intrusive than other treatments have been in the past so I would not be afraid of that at all. And I would say please, just go, check it out, and then have it seen to if it needs to be seen to because you do need to have it seen to because if you let it go the that’s when it starts to get more dangerous.

Arthur Frank’ I think the really important message is that you’re entering this tunnel where very often you really can’t see the light at the end of the tunnel, when you’re in it, and it’s important to talk to people who’ve survived it.

I mean I think the thing I was trying to think of before that’s important is we did go, we didn’t have any fertility problems at all, and we conceived this perfectly lovely daughter. And I think the thing I’d really like to end on would be the birth of our daughter because theres something about that affirmation of life that’s just so extraordinary after you’ve nearly died, that that was, it made that experience so incredibly richer than it ever could have been.

But I’ve been very lucky, so if you’re lucky enough to be as lucky as I’ve been, as aggressive as the treatment has been, as terrible as the whole idea of a testicle on your tumour (laughs) a tumour on your testicle can be, and to say, it’s important to hold onto the fact that this will years later seem like a fairly short period of time.

Don’t despair, keep, keep cheerful if you can, look on the bright side because there are more brighter sides’ than down sides’ and just find a buddy, just find somebody that you can talk to. Tell them “Oh I hate this smell that’s coming through these pores,” [due to the chemotherapy] or “Don’t give me a beer in a can, pour it into a glass,” [because of the taste of the metal], silly little things, but laugh about them. Tell other people how you feel, share it and if you share it, it halves what you’re going through and it isn’t that bad. And life afterwards, you will pick up exactly where you left off.