A MAN diagnosed with testicular cancer at 20 – and who saved the lives of three boys by sharing his experience – is to become a father.

Ryan Walshe, now 29, said the news was the best present he could wish for and hoped it would inspire others with testicular cancer.

“I couldn’t believe it when I heard and I still can’t believe it,” said Ryan, a butcher who lives at Mile Oak. “My story shows that you can go on to father children and testicular cancer is not the end of the road.”

His partner Amy Latraille, a 25-year-old hairdresser, is expecting their baby in May.

After his diagnosis and treatment in 2010, Ryan began an educational initiative called Talking Testicles, visiting schools in Brighton and Hove to talk about his experience and encourage boys to self-examine. Through that work, he saved the lives of three boys.

His cancer was discovered after he watched an episode of the Channel 4 TV programme Embarrassing Bodies about testicular cancer and carried out a self-examination.

He noticed one of his testicles was completely hard and went to the doctor the following day. “I was worried and in the back of my mind, I thought, ‘Oh, it’s cancer’,” he said shortly afterwards.

A week later, he had an ultrasound scan and was told the same day that he had cancer.

He was booked in for surgery two days later and later discovered he had been three weeks away from death.

He said: “I didn’t realise the seriousness of the situation. I was 20 at the time, in the prime of life, and I thought I was indestructible. The moment I was told I had cancer was surreal. I was pretty dazed and it was crazy. Looking back, I am glad the process was very rapid.”

He endured 11 weeks of intense chemotherapy and is now cancer-free.

He said: “When I was lying in bed, I was really annoyed about my cancer and wanted to do something about it if I lived.

“I nearly died because I wasn’t aware of cancer symptoms and I made a promise to myself that if I lived I’d do everything I could to help other men and boys become aware of all the different cancers they can get.”

He launched his Talking Testicles initiative, giving cancer awareness talks to thousands of teenagers.

“I saved the lives of three boys – one was 15 and he had been in one of my talks at a boys’ school. I got a phone call from the school to say thank you because the boy did a self-examination and went to the doctor and was saved.”

As well as schools and colleges, he also took Talking Testicles to Sussex Police and Brighton and Hove Albion and worked with the NHS.

In 2012, he also launched an awareness campaign called Beat Male Cancer, which won funding from the national People Can Do project.

“It makes me feel that I have given something back,” said Ryan. “I’ve been given my life back – I should have been dead when I was 20 and I’m still here at 29.”

Ryan and Amy had been talking about IVF treatment when Amy discovered she was pregnant.

He said: “She said to me ‘come and look at this now’ after doing a pregnancy test and even after she’d done four more, I still couldn’t believe it.

“It’s the size of a bean now and we’re going for another scan on December 2 to find out if it’s a boy or a girl. If it’s a girl, we’ll call her Freya, after the goddess of fertility.

“It’s also my birthday on May 12, just before the due date, so it’ll be the best birthday present ever.”