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Christiana Balogun had the date November 4, 2022 printed on her boot as she ran for England on her international debut in the Women’s Six Nations win over Italy.
It marks the day that Balogun completed his final round of chemotherapy after being diagnosed with Burkitt lymphoma – an aggressive, fast-growing form of cancer – earlier that year.
“The IV chemo was the biggest thing, it gave me the biggest side effects and after I finished it I was like, ‘OK let’s go, we’re going home now’,” Balogun told BBC Points West.
“It’s a date I keep very close to me, and underneath it was ‘cancer free’.”
The back-row forward moved to Bristol from Wasps in May 2022 after he discovered a lump in his neck.
He was 24, after moving to a new city, in pre-season training ahead of the 2022-23 campaign and three months later when he found out it was cancer he underwent tests to determine what it was.
Balogun hadn’t even played for the Bears for the first time when his career and life were turned upside down.
“I started treatment six days after I found out my diagnosis so there wasn’t much time to process what was going on, what I was going through,” Balogun said.
Doctors told Balogun to pack a bag for a week’s stay in hospital to begin treatment and he even packed his rugby kit, initially believing he would be able to continue training.
“When I look back on it now, I think it’s the most ridiculous thing you’ve ever done, you literally find out you have cancer and you think you’re going to training on Monday after you’re absolutely crazy,” Balogun said.
“On reflection that’s probably because I didn’t accept the diagnosis at the time and just thought about rugby, rugby, rugby.”
