Hi! 

My name's Hal and I've recently been diagnosed with testicular cancer. Seeing as how I will be treated at the Beatson Cancer Centre in Glasgow, I've decided that I'll try and raise a wee bit of money for a good cause, and to help people (like me!) deal with cancer.

Any donations at all will be very much appreciated :)

My message is much better put in my original Facebook post below:

Some of you might know about what’s been going on in the past couple of months for me, and some of you might not, but I wanted to post today partly so that the people in my life stay in the know, and partly to raise awareness.

On the 15th of September I discovered a lump in one of my testicles. As someone who checks themselves regularly for this, I knew it was irregular and made an appointment to see my GP very shortly after. Fast forwarding to the 23rd of October, through several consultations, blood tests, and scans, I had surgery for suspected testicular cancer.

In these subsequent weeks I’ve been waiting for results, and today it was confirmed that I still have cancer. I’ll be starting chemotherapy next week, where it’s hopeful that the 9-week course alone should get rid of the rest of the cancer cells, seeing as how the cells are still early in their development.

I want to stress at this point that I feel fine! I’ll be battling this with a smile on my face, and though I’m a tad annoyed at how it will affect my studies, I know I’ll come out the other side perfectly well 😊

Seeing how this is November, many have been fundraising for Movember, which is a great cause; though it’s important for everyone to remember what the purpose of Movember is, and that’s to raise awareness. My contribution to this goal is to tell my story, and hope that it can convince at least one person to perform regular self-examinations on themselves, so they’ll know, like myself, as soon as something is wrong. Whether you’re a guy or a girl, spending just 30 seconds in the shower each day checking either your testicles or your breasts could save your life. It may well have saved mine.

As I said above, I will be starting chemotherapy next week, which will involve me losing my hair. Seeing as how it’s going anyway, and I’ve always wanted to see myself bald, I’ll be shaving it off – to beat the chemo to it and to raise money for the Beatson, where I’ll be making myself comfortable over the next 9 weeks (and many more after, so I’m told). The link to the donation page is below, for anyone that wants to support.

If you’ve gotten this far, thank you for reading, please remember to check yourself, and don’t be afraid to see your GP about anything unusual – they’ve seen it all before!

- Hal