8-year-old Byron Geldard was experiencing severe stomach pains, which led him to visit his local doctor. The initial diagnosis was simply muscle soreness, and he left without thinking much more of it.
That is until the pain persisted, and even worsened, causing him to return to the doctor. This time around they found a lump in his abdomen and immediately scheduled an ultrasound — it was cancer.
There was a problem however. The doctor’s couldn’t properly treat the cancer, because they couldn’t figure out which type of cancer it was. Byron told The Telegraph:
“[it] could have had four or five different types. The doctor kept saying things but it wasn’t really going in. I left the room and fainted – I think it was the fear of the unknown.”
He was ultimately referred to the Teenage Cancer Trust Unit which asked him for a urine sample in order to take a pregnancy test. It came back positive, and he was diagnosed with stage four testicular cancer.
A spokeswoman for the hospital told the Telegraph that a pregnancy test can be used to determine testicular cancer, or rule it out, because the disease produces the same hormone that a developing placenta does.
After undergoing surgery to remove the growth in his abdomen, and months of chemotherapy, Byron got the great news: the cancer was in remission.
He has since gone on to raise awareness about testicular cancer and plans to travel to different school to educate other young folks about the disease.
