Warrington rugby star among first to use testicular cancer self-testing kit
Sam Clark is hoping to encourage more men to get tested
A Warrington rugby player is one of the first athletes to use a new self-testing kit to diagnose testicular cancer.
Sam Clark, 21, and his Ealing Trailfinders teammates are backing a new campaign to encourage more men to get tested.
The Amateur Anti-Doping Test is being rolled out to sports clubs across the country to help raise awareness of the most common cancer among men aged 15-45.
Around 2,400 men are diagnosed with testicular cancer each year in the UK, but if caught early, the survival rate is over 95%.
Sam Clark said:
"It's a really simple test kit really. As professional sports people, we do quite a lot of doping tests, quite a lot of the time and that just involves weeing into a cup and then sending it off to get analysed for banned substances.
"So it's the same process. You wee into to a cup and then send it off and this time instead of it getting analysed for banned substances, it get analysed for testicular cancer to see if you you've got it in your system, which is really good.
"It's close to our hearts"
"The reason we're backing it as a club, and as individuals, is because it's close to our hearts. As men, there's a big stigma around testicular cancer and people are more likely to not check and sort of hide it and if they see any symptoms there, they don't really want to share that.
"So for us, we want to break down that stigma and open up some potentially life changing conversations."