Capital FM presenter Chris Stark, 38, has revealed that receiving his cancer news made him feel like “an idiot” after ignoring symptoms. The star recently revealed that he was diagnosed with testicular cancer after a routine trip to his GP and has since undergone chemotherapy.
Speaking on This Morning today, Chris said while choking up: “The second they told me it was testicular cancer – I’ve got two kids, I’ve got a wife who I love very dearly. I just felt like, ‘You’re an idiot.’ It was lucky I went to the doctors.”
Opening up about his cancer journey to hosts Ben Shephard and Cat Deeley, Chris admitted that he was “awkward” about dealing with his testicular symptoms but during a trip to the doctors, his GP asked if he wanted a quick examination.
“As he was doing that, it felt really sore on one side and it had always felt sore so I just put it down to playing football. Then at that point, he told me it shouldn’t really feel sore and it could be a symptom of something else.”
After going for an ultrasound, Chris was diagnosed with testicular cancer. “It was only then when they made me push my fingers down on it, I could feel that lump. It’d been avoiding that because there was a bit of a pain but I just wrote-off the pain as, ‘It’s just your balls.'”
He said that he hopes that opening up about it publicly will inspire other men to check themselves. “I’ve gotten used to that embarrassment for me to talk about on the radio, I’m happy to do that if the end result is one lad checks themselves or knows they’ve got something going on but was embarrassed to go to the doctors. Just go and do it,” he said.
The former BBC star revealed in the last few days that he has been “effectively cured” after taking the a few weeks off of work to undergo chemotherapy.
He wrote on social media: “My hope is any bloke reading this will perhaps think to check themselves today. Or go to a doctor if not sure about any possible symptoms. Caught early, this cancer is so so treatable. It is most common in men aged 18-49.
“I also think it’s a tricky subject matter to talk about, but I’m willing to put my now one ball on the line here if it helps make that conversation less tricky for guys, encourages someone to check themselves and potentially saves a life.”
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