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Editor reveals cancer fight after 40th birthday tumour operation

An editor has gone public with his fight with cancer after having a cancerous lump removed from his leg on his 40th birthday.

Steffan Rhys, executive editor at Wales Online, spoke out in a bid to give “confidence and hope” to others facing a similar struggle.

Steffan, pictured, was diagnosed with sarcoma, a malignant tumour that grows in bone or soft tissue anywhere, after discovering a painless lump in his right leg.

After being diagnosed, doctors had to check last month whether the cancer had spread to his lungs before operating.

Steffan Rhys

In a piece about his battle for Wales Online, Steffan wrote: “It’s hard to describe what goes through your head when you’re waiting to find out if you have secondary lung cancer.

“I was scared I was about to find out I was now fighting for my life, bewildered at how a painless lump in my leg had come to this and desperately sad at the thought of my little girl not having her dad around much longer.

“I could barely process the fact it was possible that my pregnant partner would soon be having a second child that I may not know for long.”

The test came back clear, and Steffan was booked in to get the lump removed on his 40th birthday.

He added: “It’s four weeks after surgery now and I’m getting closer to being able to walk properly. Before the op, I’d spend weekend mornings doing 50-mile bike rides, now I’m going through physiotherapy just to be able to bend my leg or lift it off the floor.

“I don’t know how long it’ll be until I can cycle properly again, or be confident enough to carry my daughter on my shoulders again. But there’s plenty I do know.

“I know that I will get there and that I don’t feel sorry for myself. I don’t care how my leg looks. I know that right now I no longer have cancer and my prognosis is good.

“I hope that gives others confidence and hope. Like anyone else who’s been through it, I face years of scans to check it hasn’t come back but there’s no particular reason to fear it will.”

Steffan thanked friends, colleagues and loved ones who had supported him through his ordeal.

He added: “I know for real the skill, expertise, dedication, care and patience that runs through the people on the frontline of the NHS and at charities like Sarcoma UK and Macmillan. At every step of the way, it has been not only hugely impressive but truly humbling.

“More than that, it’s blown me away. It is only thanks to them that I’m cured. I may even be a better person at the end of it. I was recently trying to put this into words to a friend, who replied simply: ‘They are superheroes, aren’t they?’

“I know they don’t walk around thinking of themselves like that, but it sums them up perfectly.”

Speaking to HTFP, Steffan added: “I know not everyone would feel comfortable putting their experience out there, and I completely understand. I just felt that, having a platform that could help raise awareness, I should do it.

“I hope it makes a difference. In any case, the remarkable surgeon who cured me asked me to write something – so I really didn’t have a choice!”