A fundraiser has been launched in support of former Welsh rugby favourite Mark Spiller, who has been diagnosed with a rare form of cancer.
Spiller, who played for Nelson, Ebbw Vale, Pontypool and Pontypridd during the 1990s, has developed neuroendocrine cancer and is set to go under the knife to have a tumour on his liver removed.
Speaking to WalesOnline, the 55-year-old former flanker, who now owns his own business as a roofer, explained he first noticed something wasn't right shortly after Covid restrictions were lifted.
"I was actually feeling pretty good," he remembers. "It was just after Covid, in sort of March, maybe April, and I'd just started training again. I was lying in bed one day and noticed I'd lost a bit of weight, and I felt this lump.
"I thought it might have been a hernia, or maybe I'd sprained it in work or something. I went to the doctors and they sent me for an ultrasound and that confirmed there was something wrong."
A biopsy confirmed the worst.
"I was in work when they rung me and told me," he remembered. "I was on the roof and I was just gobsmacked. My head was spinning. I didn't know the extent of it at that time. I just knew it was cancer."
The news has sparked support from across the Welsh rugby family, with former Pontypridd team-mate Dale McIntosh among the first to reach out.
"The support's been massive," he added. "The boys from Ponty found out and they all phoned me, including Chief [Dale McIntosh]. He was actually out in New Zealand at the time, but got in touch to see how I was doing."
Mark's partner Michelle Mallett has now launched a GoFundMe page to help drum up financial support for Mark, who is facing at least several months out of work as he recovers.
Michelle says she doesn't have a particular fundraising target in mind, but it had raised more than £2,500 at the time of writing.
"We raised quite a bit of money before," she said. "The ex-rugby boys did a fundraiser for him personally because Mark has to have several months off work. Chief was one of the main organisers and said 'I've done all this. We need the funds to go somewhere. Can you organise a fundraiser?' So I did some research and set up the GoFundMe and it's gone a bit mad. The donations have come in from as far away as Canada. This particular fundraiser is for Mark, so that he hasn't got any money worries."
Michelle also hopes to raise awareness around neuroendocrine cancer, which is one of the lesser-known forms of cancer.
"Neuroendocrine is a hormonal cancer," she added. "I never even knew it existed, and it's not normally treated with chemotherapy or radiotherapy. It's an injection-based treatment and then obviously surgery.
"After a series of consultations and goodness knows what, we met with a specialist at the University Hospital of Wales in Cardiff, thinking it was going to be a tiny operation, but they said 'no, this is huge and he has to have it, and you have to have it now'. He had a little one on his pancreas that had then moved to his liver. His ribcage was pressing out because it was putting pressure on it. It was quite a large one on his liver."
Mark was initially due to go under the knife seven weeks ago, only for the procedure to be postponed after he contracted Covid. But he is now due to finally go through with the operation this coming Monday, November 28, and admits there are real risks attached to it all.
"It's a big operation and certain things could go wrong, but they're pretty confident," he said. "It's high risk, but things like this are. The main thing they're worried about is that my liver could fail, but I'm in the hands of one of the best possible surgeons, so hopefully everything will be alright."
You can make a donation to the GoFundMe page here.
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