Cancer man to be a father from stored sperm

Christopher Stone, now 33, was just 17 when he was given the news he had testicular cancer but is now looking forward to the birth of his first child, conceived through IVF, in the New Year.

Mr Stone, from Heeley, Sheffield, was told the most effective treatment was to have an operation to remove the affected testicle – a procedure which doctors first thought had been successful.

Before the surgery, samples of sperm were collected and stored so that if he wanted to try for children the option was available.

The disease returned on several occasions over the following years, most heartbreakingly in 2006 when Mr Stone was told he would need a second operation.

But today his check-ups have been reduced to once a year, and he and wife Fiona are looking forward to the arrival of a baby boy in January.

Mr Stone said: "It's absolutely amazing. We've been under the care of Jessop's Hospital and the second lot of IVF was successful.

"Once the baby is here in January it will definitely feel like a new chapter – we're really excited and just can't wait."

Mr Stone was only a teenager when he realised something may be wrong. "It was pretty horrendous for a 17-year-old boy to think about and to deal with," he said.

Months after his first surgery, doctors found the disease had spread, and Mr Stone was told he would also need chemotherapy. It meant he had to give up his IT degree course at Sheffield Hallam University but things began to look up when he married college sweetheart Fiona.

Two weeks later, however, doctors found tumours in his stomach, meaning more surgery. "They told me there were serious risks," he said. "Fortunately, the operation went well – but it meant my honeymoon was spent in the Northern General Hospital."

Six months later he had to go under the knife again, for benign tumours in his throat and the lymph nodes from his neck to be removed. Then by the summer of 2006 he again started suffering symptoms that seemed all too familiar, and he was given the second diagnosis.

After a course of radiotherapy he was given the all-clear.