Patriots left tackle Nate Solder started all 16 regular season games for New England last year. He helped the Pats win a Super Bowl by protecting Tom Brady's blind side. And he even managed to catch a touchdown pass in the AFC Championship Game against the Colts:
But believe it or not, those were minor victories compared to what Solder faced off the football field prior to the start of the season. He just spoke with ESPN.com and revealed that, in April 2014, he was diagnosed with testicular cancer, despite the fact that he felt 100 percent healthy at the time and had no family history of that specific kind of cancer.
Solder needed to have one of his testicles removed a short time later and was forced to miss about two weeks' worth of voluntary OTAs with the Patriots. But by June, he was back on the field and the cancer didn't prevent him from missing any playing time with the Pats. And now, he's speaking out about what he went through in order to help bring awareness to testicular cancer.
"I knew nothing about it," he told ESPN.com. "It was a complete surprise…I was completely healthy, I'm a professional athlete. It can happen to anybody. Make sure you get yourself checked out, especially young men, because that's who it's really targeted toward."
You can read Solder's entire story here. It's an incredible story when you consider how quickly he was able to bounce back from cancer.
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[via ESPN Boston]
