Thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page.

As many of you know, mine and Steve’s lives came crashing down just days before Christmas last year (2021), when he received the awful news that he had testicular cancer. Working in healthcare isn’t always the best place to be when these things occur and I automatically feared the worst. We both were in utter shock how this could happen to someone generally in good health. Me being me and Steve the laid back chap that he is meant we just went into auto pilot and sailed through diagnosis / operation / after care. It’s only now I’ve sat and reflected on what actually happened and how I could try to make a difference and raise some awareness for more men out there.

A “classic” symptom of testicular cancer would be a lump, however Steve didn’t have this, he literally had some slight changes to general shape/feel of the testicle. After LOTS of persuasion he visited the GP who wasn’t overly concerned but sent for an ultrasound just to air on the side of caution - This took almost 10 weeks.

RESULTS- The results showed some calcification in the abnormal testicle and he was referred to a urologist. We then had a brief appointment with him who advised us he would discuss the case/results in a meeting that week (this was Monday).
On the Thursday, Steve received the call to say the team believed this was highly suspicious and to attend for pre-op the next day and book in for surgery on Monday just days before Christmas:(

We couldn’t fault the speed of the process and was happy he was getting the treatment that he required. Three months on and Steve is back to his normal self, he has had no side effects post surgery and after further tests scans etc we were relieved to hear that there was no further spread, we are just happy to continue our lives together with our two amazing children. It was a huge scare but definitely feel we are out the other side now…Just three monthly checks for two years, then six monthly for a further three years after that and it’s all done.

All this got me thinking about what I could do to try and raise awareness/ give back. I’ve chosen to raise money by running 2 miles every day throughout April (Testicular cancer awareness month) for the Oddballs charity whom were founded in 2014 with the intention of raising awareness for testicular cancer and supporting the stigma associated with the mental and physical health of men.

I really hope you can help me on my mission and more importantly I hope that I can raise more awareness to you amazing fellas and remind you to check your bits and even the slightest change to GET IT CHECKED OUT :)

Thank you for reading my story and any questions / concerns myself and Steve would be happy to chat
Katrina xxx