Father Ed Hone was just 27 when he was diagnosed with testicular cancer, 35 years ago.
Fr Hone, who severed as a priest at St Benet's in Sunderland during the 1990s and spent time at Durham University, found his strict Catholic upbringing made it difficult to talk about his illness - given it's intimate nature - but that falling ill when he did changed his life, and despite struggling with depression, ended with him feeling a "completely different person and a better priest".
Fr Hone features in a new video campaign from male cancer charity Orchid - launched in Newcastle this week in partnership with charity Healthworks, based here - in which his struggles to come to terms with his illness, and reconciling it with his faith and his calling as a Catholic priest, are dramatised. Now past 60, he said he felt it was vital to share his story, and encourage people to be open and seek support for illnesses they may be embarrassed about.
Speaking at the event and to ChronicleLive, Fr Hone said: "I'm so happy to be here at an event like this. I have often reflected, especially over the last 18 months, what my life would have been like if an organisation like Orchid had been around to support me back when I had my illness.
"I remember first thinking of the cancer as like a kind of invader living in my body. And of course through surgery that invader was taken away, but it had affected me profoundly. It had affected me in terms of my mental health, in terms of my spirituality too. It can affect everything, including your relationships with your family. There's all that too recover from, too.
"Over the years I have discovered though that my cancer made me a better priest. It made me more compassionate and took away my fear of illness and death."
The film features Fr Hone struggling with his spirituality, and coming to terms with being ill and his belief in God. He explained to ChronicleLive how he felt falling ill had changed him. He said: "I realised there was life after illness. I found it so much easier to talk to others - people who are ill or on their deathbed.
"As part of the job you come into contact with people who are very ill in all kinds of ways, and I was terrified - I never knew what to say. But after all of this that happened to me, I somehow became a different person - and a better person and priest who could perhaps empathise in a different way."
Fr Hone, who has worked around the country and is currently based in Bradford, spoke of how as a young man, even with sisters who were nurses, having been brought up in a strict religious household meant he found it difficult back then to ask others for support and it took him a long time to even broach the subject of his diagnosis.
Afterwards, around three years following his diagnosis, he said he experienced depression and really struggled, and that it's important to consider the profound impact that surgery for an illness such as testicular cancer can have on one's sense of self, even if you go on to make a recovery.
He added: "I am aware that in my strict Catholic upbringing we never spoke about sex - which made me very reluctant to go to anyone with my testicular cancer. I think that can have equivalents in other religious communities where people may not be as comfortable talking about this kind of thing.
"Now I want to do everything I can to spread the word about this cancer. And I hope to help others in this way. It was 35 years ago, I was 27. I had promised myself I would run a marathon to pay back for all the treatment and support I received back then - when I turned 60 I thought that might not be happening and I would find another way to support charities working with those with testicular cancer. "
Father Ed's story features in one of three three films - each focussing on real-life testimony - which were launched at an awareness event in Newcastle. The films will be published in the coming weeks and are designed to get the public in the North East and beyond thinking and talking about prostate, testicular and penile cancer, which between them hit 55,000 people in the UK each year.
To find out more about Orchid and the support available, visit orchid-cancer.org.uk/
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