LONDON: Former Celtic, Arsenal and Wales striker John Hartson believes he is “already over the worst” in his battle against cancer which spread from a testicle to his

lungs and brain.

Six months after being left in a critical condition following surgery to remove pressure on his brain, Hartson resumed work as a football pundit and has established the John Hartson Foundation to promote awareness of the symptoms of testicular cancer and encourage other young men to seek early checks. “It’s tough but I like to think I’m already over the worst,” Hartson said in an interview with the Guardian newspaper. In it, he revealed that he had undergone

67 sessions of chemotherapy in the space of three months, losing five stones (32kg)

in the process.

“I’ve had some wonderful news about the cancer,” he said. “It came at what I thought might be a horrendous meeting with my oncologist. You just don’t know what he’s going to tell you. But when we went in he was smiling. He told us that the cancer is all but gone and that the chemo had shrunk the tumours. When we heard that, the missus and I were crying and hugging each other in his office.”

Hartson, a father of three young children, recently married his long-standing girlfriend, Sarah. He is due to undergo further surgery on his lungs and brain over the next few months but he is upbeat about the future.

Hartson is also hoping

he can ensure that other

men do not make the

same mistake as he did in failing to see a doctor for four years after he first found a lump on a testicle. “It was just me being stupid, and boyish, and not mature enough to face it,” he recalled.