[Music]

My name is Rob Drew, I'm 35 years old and I live just outside Eastley in Hampshire.

I had Hodgkin's lymphoma. It was diagnosed in April 2005.

When I was initially diagnosed, the thought of children,

the possible loss of fertility didn't really enter my head at all.

Children wasn't something that was on my agenda.

It was only when the doctor advised me that the treatment I was going to have might affect my ability to have children

and the options surrounding that that it really came up on the agenda.

I had just got with a relatively new girlfriend.

We'd been together at the point of diagnosis we'd been together about five months.

So it was obviously too early really to have started thinking about children.

So it was an issue that we were confronted with probably sooner than otherwise would have been the case.

And so we talked about it and we decided that it would be a good thing to do the banking of sperm

so that it kind of safe-guarded the future for that.

Once I'd decided to actually bank some sperm,

before I actually went round to doing it I think it was a bit of a joke really among my friends and everything.

There was a lot of sniggering going on like boys do

and things like 'Well you know it's something that we all do so you might as well do it for a purpose' and things.

So it was kind of all done in a very light-hearted way

and I think it was only when I actually got to the fertility clinic that it kind of I realised it was a clinical procedure

and it wasn't really a laughing matter.

When I arrived at the clinic I remember thinking that I just wanted to get it done

and get out of there really because I realised I wasn't really that comfortable with the whole environment.

And it wasn't really a romantic way to possibly conceive a child.

The procedure for doing it is that they recommend that you do two separate deposits

so it's not something that you do once and then you can forget all about it.

You do have to do it twice. And then that was that part of the pre-treatment finished really.

And I looked upon it as something of a tick-box exercise.

There were lots of things that had to be done. Things like a heart scan, a lung function test, various blood tests

and obviously that donation and so really it was nice to put a tick in a box

and think okay that's one more thing done before the treatment proper started.

The treatment itself - the chemotherapy and then the radiotherapy that immediately followed

lasted between six to seven months.

As part of the procedure that they do, what they recommend is that you come back in,

once your treatment's all finished and settled down

and things have kind of got back to normal in terms of your body

they recommend that you come in for a follow-up test I think is what they call it.

And in that you can donate some more sperm and they will compare it

and give you an idea as to whether your sperm has been affected by the treatment

and in my case they didn't feel it had been.

They said that there was no significant difference between the three samples that they had.

Really I've moved on I think quite a lot in terms of

I've tried as much as I can to put the treatment and the whole experience behind me which I think I've managed to do

I have also got a new girlfriend in that time who I've now been with for around about a year and a half

and we're now at a stage where we're talking about having children at some point in the not too distant future.

I think we've both kind of agreed that we'd like three.

And so, I'm hoping for a boy I think, first of all, who can follow in the line of supporting Charlton Athletic

and I would also like to have at least one girl, hopefully two,

who can do things like go to ballet classes and art classes and that sort of thing and do things like that really.

For information, help, or if you just want a chat,

call the Macmillan Support Line on 0808 808 00 00 or visit macmillan.org.uk