The BBC reported today that Testicular cancer survival rates have soared, which is is absolutely fantastic news.

In the early 70’s only 68% survived, in 2009 it was 96%!

It certainly doesn’t feel like 8 years since I went through this, but it is. In fact it’s 8 years ago and 8 days since I found that dodgy little lump and embarked on a journey that put my life on hold for pretty much 6 months.

Fast forward 8 years and I have a two year old toddler to race around with, for now he has little idea what his Daddy went through, one day I’ll have to teach him how to check himself and explain why it’s so important. If you’re reading this, remember it’s not just you that you have to check, you have a responsibility to teach your children how to check as well.

The key message from the research is that they want to focus on the remaining 4%, who tend to be:

diagnosed much later or with “much more aggressive” testicular cancer.

Please check yourselves (and your partners!), and talk to someone if you have the slightest concern – early diagnosis has a really, really good survival rate!