REA <div class="headline" id="ds-headline"><h1>Former Reds worker's cancer campaign</h1></div> <div class="viewarticlepanel"><div class="multiimageon" id="MainMultiImage"><div id="MainImageDiv"></div><div id="ImageCaption">Grateful patient: Darren Hayes wants to repay the hospital who have helped him in his cancer battle Picture: Stuart Hastings</div><div class="offinline" id="ThumbDiv"><div class="thumb"></div><div class="thumb">/</div><div class="thumb">/</div><div class="thumb2">/</div></div> <div class="offinline" id="Navigation"><div class="off" id="PreviousBlock1">« Previous </div><div class="off" id="PreviousBlock1Inactive">« Previous</div><div class="off" id="NextBlock1">Next » </div><div class="off" id="NextBlock1Inactive">Next »</div></div> <div class="off noprint" id="divGalleryLink">View Gallery</div></div></div><div class="byline" id="ds-byline">By Simon Meeks</div><div class="ds-firstpara" id="ds-firstpara">DARREN Hayes' life fell apart in two days.</div><div class="va-bodytext" id="va-bodytext">The door closed on his job at Barnsley FC and a full-on fight against cancer began. That was just last summer. Today the 34-year-old from Monk Bretton is fighting fit, back at work. Another survivor, another hospital success story out of Sheffield's Weston Park and Rotherham District General. End of story but, for Hayes, beginning of mission. "I'm looking at organising a series of sporting dinners in and around Barnsley," he explained. "Testicular cancer is not publicised at all. Talking to people at Weston Park as I've gone along, they're still banging their heads against a brick wall trying to get men to do what they need to do to check for it. What do you think? Post your comments below. "The way they treated me, Rotherham Hospital as well, I want to try to raise money for them and by that way raise awareness." The former Barnsley FC commercial boss and Barnsley CC player has contacts in and beyond football. Cricket superstar Shane Warne is being lined up to headline a summer fund-raiser. By then the anniversary of Hayes' darkest day will have passed. "I got diagnosed with the tumour on the Thursday, I left the football club by mutual consent on the Friday," he recalled. "I remember Gordon Shepherd (Barnsley FC chairman) shaking me by the hand and me saying that I'd a big fight on my hands with the cancer. Gordon was gutted. "I shed a tear once, I think, at the early stage when it was first diagnosed but then I said to myself 'that's it, stay positive now.' Once the family saw that, they were behind me. "Every question I had, Rotherham Hospital answered it. They put your mind at rest. They said give it six months and you'll be back at work, I was back in three-and-a-half months. "As far as I'm concerned the treatment I've had and I'm still having is second to none." Chemotherapy followed surgery and there will be regular cancer checks for the next five years before the all clear. "It isn't a killer but the concern is if it spreads," Hayes explained. "They're saying at Weston Park that they're treating twice as many people as they were in Sheffield but it's still not in the thousands. It's in the low hundreds but who's to say that people haven't died in the past through lung cancer and stomach cancer that began in the testicles? "You look at the medical records and I'm listed as having cancer but as far as I'm concerned I'm up and at it and raring to go. I don't feel any worse for wear. I'm obviously just missing o <div id="ds-mpu"></div>ne thing and that's about it." He added: "I don't really wonder, why me? The question I ask myself is, how? Cancer is not in my family, there's no history of it at all. Was there something I did to develop it? "They can't really answer that. I'd love to know if I was living in an area which was known for creating cancer. Was it down to something I'd been given earlier in my life. "For me my three young kids are my biggest worry. "Does anything pass on? The youngest was born in March and I was diagnosed in June. D THIS ABOUT DARREN HAYES - I WISH HIM ALL THE BEST </div>
Darrens a good lad, i played cricket with him and he always gave his best then, pleasant to know and socialise with. hope the outcome is still the same in 5 years for him.
RE: how's the eyesight? nt Not bad mate, it's going well thanks. I think I expected too much having had 'perfect' sight with contacts before, but apparently the eyes are healthy and doing well, and not far from 20-20. Apparently one's very slightly long, and one slightly short sighted but it's only a minor difference.
