7 sports personalities who fought cancer

#4 Lance Armstrong: Testicular cancer

His career has since been marred by doping, but Armstrong fought aggressive cancer

In recent years, Armstrong has come to be associated with duplicity, doping scandals and the ignominy of cheating. But before he revealed that he had been taking performance-enhancing drugs throughout what had been a very successful professional cycling career, Lance Armstrong was a very public face for cancer fighters and survivors.

The cyclist fought a very aggressive form of testicular cancer when he was only in his 20s, overcoming it to continue participating sport.

Armstrong had already had sporting success as a teenager, becoming a professional triathlete at the age of 18. The following year, he became the USA’s national sprint-course triathlon champion.

In the following years, he would win several cycling tours and finish strongly at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta, Georgia, in his first ever Olympics. He had even won two Tour de France stages prior to his diagnosis.

That same year, Armstrong, only 25-years-old, received shattering news – not only that he had testicular cancer, but that the cancer had spread to his lung, brain and abdomen. He only went public with his diagnosis after already having begun chemotherapy, telling the New York Times at the time that he “fully intended to beat this disease.”

He revealed he had been “coughing up massive amounts of blood” and had a swollen testicle, with his urologist saying at the time he believed Armstrong had “almost no hope” of survival given his “kind of cancer” and the results his tests and x-rays had shown. The cancer was so bad that Armstrong had surgery to remove the testicle the day after he visited the doctor.

Told he had a “20-50%” chance of survival, Armstrong would undergo over 3 months of chemotherapy, during which time he lost his main cycling contract.

After a few years off the professional cycling circuit, Armstrong came back to cycling in 1998, winning a few cycling stage races and participating in Tours de France over the years, although doping allegations continued to dog him until his eventual final retirement in 2011 (he had previously announced it in 2005, but went on to cycle nevertheless).

Eventually, after several allegations and investigations, Armstrong admitted in 2013 that he had in fact been taking performance-enhancing drugs for a significant portion of his career, a confession that saw him stripped of his medals and endorsement deals.

Despite the scandals that have overshadowed his life and career since, Armstrong fought a very aggressive form of a cancer otherwise known for its high survival rates, and given almost no chance of survival, beat the odds.

He continues to work with several cancer charities to spread awareness of the disease and its treatment.