By Russell Bennett
Ben Collins and Nathan Sullivan sat down over a pot and parma at the Tooradin Sports Club a few days ago, looked out over the footy ground, and had their first ever conversation. The topic? Their battles with testicular cancer.
They’re both typical Aussie blokes in the age bracket between late-20s and mid-30s, they both love running out on to the footy field each week with their mates, and they both have partners and young kids.
They’re actually former opponents in the Ellinbank and District Football League – Ben, the captain-coach of Kooweerup (now in West Gippsland); and Nathan, a Longwarry player – and a few days ago they sat down and spoke about arguably the most fearsome and confronting six-letter word there is – cancer.
They laid their cards bare; speaking about the range of emotions that hit them wave after wave, and the reality of what their diagnosis meant.
The Gazette was made aware of both of their situations recently, but at the time neither Nathan nor Ben knew about the other’s diagnosis.
As soon as they found out, they immediately had something else in common – a need to speak out, to raise awareness of the disease that is the second most common form of cancer in young men aged between 18 and 39.
In recent weeks both Ben and Nathan have had surgery to remove a cancer-affected testicle. They were diagnosed within five days of each other, and the prognosis for both of them is extremely positive. The five-year survival rate of men diagnosed with testicular cancer is close to 98 per cent.
Ben was told he had an early-stage seminoma – and he still may need some chemotherapy; while Nathan was diagnosed with a mature teratoma. They’re different tumours, and they had different symptoms.
“Jesse Hogan’s situation pushed me into getting checked and I actually texted him and said that, without wanting to dramatise it, I only got checked because he came out publically and said he had it and that could potentially have saved my life,” Ben said.
“The reason I’m happy to get this out there is because if we can influence someone else to get themselves checked, and if that person has it and it’s caught early, then this is all worthwhile.
“The doc reckons I’d had it for six months before I was diagnosed. I had no pain – it was tender, but it didn’t hurt.”
The change in size and shape of one of his testicles, and hearing Jesse Hogan’s symptoms on the radio, ultimately led Ben to booking an appointment to get checked out.
Nathan, meanwhile, did experience pain – a lot of it.
“They got mine very early and the reason was because the calcium build-up around the cancer hit a nerve and it just hurt so much I had to get it checked out,” he said.
“Fryzy (Longwarry player-coach Daniel Fry) asked if I wanted to keep the diagnosis low key or not and I said not at all.
“If one of the boys had felt a lump, hopefully that’d make them get checked out.
“Best case scenario is it’s just a cist and you’ve had some bloke fondle your balls. Really, at the end of the day, that is the best case scenario, but what if it is cancer?
“When the doctors told me it was cancer and it needed to come out, it just hit me. The biggest problem for me was telling the kids and my partner.”
Ben also had an emotional conversation with his wife Aleisha, but found it particularly difficult telling his Koowee team-mates. He’s not sure if he’ll play on beyond this year, and his diagnosis meant he could have played his last game in a senior career that started in 2000 when he was 17.
“I was dealing with it alright, but when I told the boys it hit me for six,” he said.
“I sat all the players down and said the Garfield game (on 20 May) could be my last game and all the players were that emotional, it cracked me.”
But Collins has already returned to the field – booting three goals up forward in a narrow loss to Dalyston on Saturday.
For both boys, their love of footy has gained a different perspective through this.
“I probably didn’t realise how much the game meant to me,” Nathan said.
“I’d always come home on Saturday nights saying: ‘God, I can’t do this for much longer – I’m so sore’.
“But I just want to be out there – it’s so hard not to be.”
Both he and Ben will need regular check-ups, scans, and blood tests for the foreseeable future, but they’re well and truly on top of things.
“The big thing is the percentage of it coming back into the other testicle – it’s something like a 35 per cent chance,” Nathan said.
“Everyone thinks they’re invincible until something like this happens to them.
“I never wanted to make a fuss about it because I don’t want anyone to feel sorry for me. You see people going to chemo six times a week who’re just holding on, so I don’t make too much of a big deal about this, but if I did let it go, I could have been in the same position.”
Ben said the simple reason he kept putting off seeing his doctor was fear.
“Because of the history of cancer in my family, I thought the worst but it’s fully treatable,” he said.
“If you leave it too long, it really can be life and death.
“For me, and I know Nathan is the same, if one of the boys running around in the local area reads this in the paper, gets themselves checked out, and gets on top of it early, I’d be rapt – it’s worth putting yourself out there.”
