A footballer described as 'one of the "brightest talents" in the Premier League has returned to the pitch after fighting off cancer.
David Brooks was diagnosed with Hodgkin Lymphoma in October 2021 just weeks after scoring a goal in a Euros match against Croatia. The AFC Bournemouth player said his first symptoms were struggling to put on weight, despite eating four meals a day.
The 25-year-old, from Warrington, also said his sleep was disrupted and he'd started experiencing night sweats. After spending 18-months going through intensive treatment after his stage 2 Hodgkin lymphoma diagnosis he is supporting Race for Life and has returned to Premier League.
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Speaking about his diagnosis, David said: "I remember at the Euros in the summer of 2021, I wasn’t starting or playing and despite eating three or four meals a day I wasn’t putting on any weight. Then I found I just couldn’t get my legs to take me where they needed to go. It was really frustrating because at that point, I didn’t know there was anything wrong.
"I went away to play with Wales and they do a medical check at the start of international duty and I explained to the doctor that I’d been struggling to sleep and had experienced some night sweats as well as a sudden drop in weight. Twenty minutes later he came to my room and said, ‘I don’t want to alarm you but everything you have described to me is a symptom of cancer.’"
He said that the news was a "big one to try and digest" but being close with family and friends he supported. After six months of chemotherapy following his diagnosis and has since kicked his cancer - announcing to his team that he was cancer free the same day Bournemouth were promoted in May last year, Cheshire Live reports.
David said "You almost don’t want to believe it. When you hear the word ‘cancer’ as a young lad you don’t expect yourself to be in that position where you need to know everything about it, unless you’ve had a relative that has gone through that process.
"The worst pops into your head because as soon as you hear the word ‘cancer’ you don’t think it can be positive in anyway and you look at the bad side of it. It was a difficult one to try to process. I’m not in touch with my emotions on a day-to-day basis but when a cancer diagnosis comes into play, it’s just very different. It’s difficult to stay composed in that situation but I never really let it out until I was on my own."
He said: "Football was my life for 24 years before I was diagnosed and for a brief moment, in the grand scheme of things, football didn’t matter. It was about my health and my mentality. But to be able to play football again is a real blessing and I hope people will take part in Race for Life to support the kind of research that helped to get me back on the pitch."
Since returning to the pitch, he is now working with Race for Life to support a series of 3k, 5k, 10k, Pretty Muddy and Pretty Muddy Kids events - which raise millions of pounds every year to help beat cancer by funding crucial research.
This is the 30th year of Race for Life and participants will receive an exclusive medal to mark the milestone. Anyone who joins before Sunday April 30 can claim 30 per cent off the entry fee* as part of a special sale by using the code SPRING30.
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