Christopher Dean has opened up about a horrific cancer scare that left him fearing for his life.
The former Olympic ice skater, who is part of the famous ice skating duo Torvill and Dean, suffered the health worry two years ago after working on the television show Dancing On Ice.
Opening up about the discovery, he wrote in the Daily Mirror: “I had not long finished the final series of Dancing On Ice in 2014 when I started getting bad stomach pains. In fact, they were agonising.
“Until that point, the only thing that had been wrong with me was injuries I had incurred from skating.
“Luckily, I was due to have a routine medical check-up and it involved a colonoscopy. When the results came back, they showed I had a 2cm growth, what is known as a polyp, on my colon.”
The sportsman admits he did not know what a polyp was at the time but his doctor explained it was a growth in the lining of the colon that could have been cancerous.
It was thought Christopher’s may have been pre-cancerous, which, if left, could have turned into colon cancer.
The star then had an agonising two week wait, and he grew anxious with worry over the results and whether he would have to have an operation to remove the growth and a chunk of his stomach in the process.
Christopher was relieved to find out the polyp was actually benign and he would not have to undergo any treatment.
He recalled: “Luckily, in the end the biopsy results came back and the polyp was benign and I didn’t need to have them removed.
“I can’t tell you the relief I felt and it really did help me put things into perspective about the previous skating injuries I had incurred.”
The Olympian says his partner, ex Dancing On Ice judge Karen Barber, who he lives with in Colorado Springs in America, was a fantastic support.
He now has to go for check-ups every five years to make sure that, if the problem reoccurs, it is caught early enough.
Christopher admits he now he now has more issues as a result of his skating injuries than anything else.
He wrote: “I still think I am 20 in my hear but it’s the symptoms of an injury that brings me up with a jolt. You find you don’t bounce back as quickly.”
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