Man diagnosed with stage four testicular cancer completes half-marathon

A man who was diagnosed with stage four testicular cancer completed a half-marathon.

Callan Rogers, 28, ran a half-marathon in March despite being about to enter his sixth round of chemotherapy treatment.

Callan, from Stratford in London, was diagnosed at the age of 26.

When his latest round of treatment stopped working, he decided to run a half-marathon and completed it in two hours and 29 minutes.

Callan, a fire safety officer, said: "I've always been good at running without really trying.

"I didn't even train for the Brentwood half!

"I did one 5k run and a 10k run before the race and thought that would do me.

"I don't like to think of it the way others might have a strategy. I just want to run."

Callan was diagnosed with stage four testicular cancer in September 2022 after finding a lump.

By the time Callan was diagnosed, the cancer had already spread to 14 different areas in his body including his lungs.

He said: "Before starting some of the toughest rounds of chemo, my doctor told me it had a 25% chance of working and if it didn't that would be kind of it for me.

"I asked how long I'd have left if it didn't work and the doctors said it would be a year, maybe two years max, which is not the news you want."

Callan underwent surgery and several rounds of chemotherapy for 10 months, which brought him into remission in June 2023.

He dealt with extreme side effects during his treatment, dropping from 84kg to 54kg in just two weeks due to mouth sores making it impossible for him to eat.

He also went partially blind as a result of burst blood vessels in his eyes and to this day deals with significant nerve damage in his hands and feet.

Callan said: "I lived in the hospital for basically all of May 2023 and when I came out on June 4th, I was in remission.

"I spent six or seven months just gaining weight, forcing myself to eat and just recovering."

Six months into his remission and during his first week back at work, Callan discovered that the cancer had returned.

He begun his fifth round of chemotherapy but when the treatment stopped working, he set himself the challenge to run a half-marathon.

He said: "I used to train MMA before I got sick and I am doing it now again, but the mentality of 'no pain, no gain' which I learnt from fighting really kept me going.

"I don't know if I've got something wrong with me, but I just don't see the point in worrying about what could go wrong.

"Life can be really unfair but you just have to get on with it sometimes."

Callan is set to begin his sixth treatment on June 10th, which is the first human trial of an experimental drug called BNT-142.

The trial will investigate the potential use of this drug as a treatment for participants with solid tumours that express a protein called Claudin-6.

BNT-142 instructs the immune cells to recognise Claudin-6 on the solid tumour and possibly destroy the cancer cells.

Callan said: "I felt like a VIP when I went in for tests for the new treatment.

"I think there's about 388 people in Europe and the US combined who are taking part.

"The staff just seem super excited whenever I'm there, and it makes me excited too."