A 41-year-old father of three who spent months blaming his back pain on rugby has revealed he is facing terminal cancer after a bizarre accident with a dog forced him to seek medical help.
Rob Houliston, a security-systems installer from near East Grinstead, West Sussex, had played the contact sport for more than three decades when twinges began earlier this year. He initially saw no cause for alarm, assuming the discomfort was simply the cost of his athletic history.
“I just thought ‘of course I have backache, I play rugby,'” he said in an interview, recalling how he dismissed the persistent symptoms that would eventually prove far more sinister.
Over the following months, Houliston’s condition deteriorated in ways he could not explain. He began feeling sick after eating and rapidly shed three-and-a-half stone, forcing him to give up rugby entirely. Still, he did not connect these changes to anything beyond his sporting past.
The turning point came in June, when an entirely unrelated incident sent him to Princess Royal Hospital. A dog struck him between the legs, leaving one testicle severely swollen.
“When I was hit by the dog, I went down like a sack of potatoes; we all laughed,” Houliston recalled. “My left testicle went massive, honestly like a tennis ball. I was struggling to sit down, but I just thought ‘it’ll get better’.”
Doctors initially performed an ultrasound to check for testicular cancer. Instead, they found a hard, swollen vein behind the enlarged testicle, signaling a possible kidney problem. Further tests, including a CT scan, revealed the true source: a large tumour and a diagnosis of renal cell carcinoma.
Medical staff determined the tumour had been pressing against his stomach, which explained the nausea and appetite loss that had plagued him for months.
In July, Houliston endured a seven-and-a-half-hour operation to remove the affected kidney and tumour. The procedure left him with a 14-inch scar encircling his torso.
“At least it’s quite cool; it looks like a shark attack,” he said, finding some levity in the physical aftermath of his ordeal.
The news that followed was devastating. Doctors informed him that his type of cancer cannot be treated with chemotherapy or radiotherapy, and that the average survival time in cases like his is four years. Houliston is now scheduled to undergo immunotherapy instead.
“Four years is not long, but I’m not going to give up,” he said. “I’ve beaten a very rare kind of cancer once. This is quite rare, and I’ll beat it again.”
Houliston previously survived rhabdomyosarcoma, developing a rare tumour in his left ear when he was just six years old. That childhood victory now fuels his refusal to surrender to this second diagnosis.
“It is what it is. There’s nothing I can do but crack on, be positive, and fight it,” he continued. “There’s no point moping around and worrying about it; you just have to live life as best you can and take whatever comes to you.”
His family has launched a GoFundMe to fund a once-in-a-lifetime trip to Disneyland, raising thousands of pounds toward the goal. Houliston has also set his sights on returning to work and eventually making his way back onto the rugby pitch.
“Don’t give up, set yourself goals and take little steps,” he advised.
Houliston’s case stands as a stark illustration of how easily serious symptoms can be masked by seemingly logical explanations, and how chance events can sometimes uncover hidden dangers that routine assumptions keep buried.