Popular Welsh rugby star Andrew Fenby had ‘insides cut out’ in inspiring cancer fight

It speaks volumes about the positivity of Andrew Fenby that, even now, he still tries to find upsides to the challenging couple of years he’s faced.

In the space of a week back in October 2src2src, the former Scarlets winger was diagnosed with stage two cancer and was also forced to close down his sports management agency. The cruel double blow would have blindsided anyone.

To Fenby’s credit, he rolled with the punches, pushed himself through chemotherapy and the tiring side effects it brings and now finds himself on the other side – with a new job and a desire to raise awareness about testicular cancer. Yet, as he recounts his story, that inherent desire to be positive even seeps into past events through hindsight.

Take, for instance, the fact that the Covid lockdown had seen him move back home to North Wales before his diagnosis, meaning he happened to have the support of parents Neil and Claire close by. “I guess, as daft as it sounds,” he suggests, “in years to come, we might look back on it and cherish those moments closer to my parents as actually enjoyable.”

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He also fondly recalls how his dad driving him to receive treatment in Liverpool was akin to being driven to and from rugby training in his youth. Taking the positives out of the situation is remarkable when you hear how, during his chemotherapy treatment, Fenby simply couldn’t risk getting Covid due to his compromised immune system and fear of not being allowed into hospital for his treatment – only adding to the stress the whole family was going through.

“I got to spend time with them, even if not in the circumstances you’d want,” he adds. “Even now, they say they enjoyed spending so much time with us.

“I probably shouldn’t see it like this, but thinking of the positives, it’s the quality time we spent together. Well, question mark on the quality, but we got to spend time together.”

That’s just the nature of Fenby, who became a fans’ favourite at Parc y Scarlets during his four years in Llanelli. As he recounts the story of his diagnosis, laced with the same positivity demonstrated above, the frightening part is just how innocuously it began.

“It all started back in August 2src2src,” Fenby begins. “I was putting my son into the car when he had this tantrum as all three-year-olds do.

“He didn’t want to sit in his car seat and, flailing his legs, he caught me flush in my right testicle. There wasn’t so much a pain as just an odd sensation. I’ve had plenty of bangs in that area of my career in my life but this strange sensation was something new.”

“But other than that, I had no inkling anything could be wrong. I train hard, I play squash at a high level.

“But just because I bizarrely happen to know a lot of people who have had testicular cancer – if you look at my time at the Scarlets, Morgan Stoddart and Matthew Rees have both had it – I knew to examine the area. It wasn’t the size of an orange, because you hear stories, it wasn’t lumpy or bumpy – there was just an area the size of a pea that was a different texture.

“So I went and got it checked as you’re supposed to do, but unfortunately I didn’t get a GP but a nurse practitioner. She examined me and sent me home, saying I had nothing to worry about. In my mind, that was it. I’ve seen someone and I’ve been told I’m fine.

“But over the next nine weeks, through training and just being a climbing frame for my two young boys, I could tell that something’s not right here. That’s when my gut instinct was to get a second opinion.

“I got an ultrasound and it was there that the radiologist let out a genuine gulp. I had the scan at 5pm on a Friday and then I was booked in to see the consultant at 1srcam on the Saturday morning. Looking back, that tells you something was up.

“I had the surgery to remove the testicle within 1src days of that. At that point, I still didn’t know exactly what was wrong – only that there was a high chance it was testicular cancer.

“Then they did blood markers and a CT scan. Finally, two weeks after the operation, it cam