Timothy O'Reilly was sitting his final accountancy exams in Dublin eight years ago when he felt a sharp, sudden pain in one of his testicles.
"The pain was severe. I finished the exam and went straight to the doctor. He sent me for an ultrasound though initially we thought it might be an infection.
"I was 26 and, like all young people, I was aware of cancer but just thought it was an older person's disease. But when the results came back it was testicular cancer. My reaction was just shock. I was a healthy young man with no major problems and then I had to talk about survival rates and cancer to a consultant. Which is very scary stuff."
"The next reaction was 'get it out of me. Do whatever it takes to get rid of this.' It is very physically scary to see your own body eat itself."
Timothy was fortunate. He had surgery in the Charlemont Clinic the day after the ultrasound results, a mere six weeks after pain first appeared. By then the testicle had swollen to three times its normal size.
Since the operation, tests have shown no recurrence of the cancer. He did not require chemotherapy or radiotherapy.
Being confronted with his own mortality prompted Timothy to make a number of big decisions. He stopped smoking on the day he was diagnosed and also decided to start his own business, MKO Consulting, in Sandyford, Dublin. He now views the heavy smoking and drinking of many among his generation with a certain amount scepticism. "Until people have a life-changing experience, whether that is a heart attack or cancer, they don't appreciate their own mortality," he says.