For months, a UK dad blamed his worsening back pain on three decades of playing rugby, until an accidental head-butt from his sister’s dog led to a devastating discovery.
Robert Houliston, 41, had spent most of his life playing rugby, so dealing with the aches that came with the sport was nothing unusual. But in early 2026, his body started giving him signs that something more serious was wrong.
“I just thought ‘of course I have backache, I play rugby,’” the security systems installer from West Sussex, England, told The Sun.
But as the weeks passed, the back pain was no longer the only change Houliston was experiencing.
By March, eating was making him sick, and his weight was dropping. By the middle of May, he had lost around 50 pounds and stopped playing rugby, yet it would take a bizarre accident the following month to finally send him to the hospital.
‘Went down like a sack of potatoes’
In June, Houliston was with his sister’s dog when his four-legged friend accidentally head-butted him directly between the legs.
“When I was hit by the dog, I went down like a sack of potatoes; we all laughed,” the father of four told The Sun. “My left testicle went massive, honestly like a tennis ball. I was struggling to sit down, but I just thought ‘it’ll get better’.”
It didn’t.
With the swelling making life difficult, Houliston eventually went to Princess Royal Hospital in Sussex, where doctors performed an ultrasound to rule out testicular cancer.
Instead, the examination raised another concern. Doctors noticed a swollen vein and decided to investigate further with a CT scan, a decision that uncovered the real reason Houliston had been feeling so unwell.
He had kidney cancer, and a tumor on his kidney had been pressing against his stomach, explaining the nausea and loss of appetite he had experienced in the months leading up to his diagnosis.
Kidney cancer can be difficult to spot
The unlikely chain of events that led to Houliston’s diagnosis highlights one of the challenges surrounding kidney cancer, which does not always cause obvious warning signs in its early stages.
In fact, the American Cancer Society (ACS) says some kidney cancers are discovered during imaging tests carried out for unrelated medical problems.
When symptoms do appear, they can include blood in the urine, persistent pain on one side of the lower back, unexplained weight loss, loss of appetite, fatigue and a lump around the side or lower back.
In the UK, around 14,500 people are diagnosed with kidney cancer every year, according to Cancer Research UK. The disease also claims about 5,200 lives annually, making it the country’s 11th most common cause of cancer death.
Across the Atlantic, kidney cancer is among the 10 most common cancers in both men and women in the United States. The ACS estimates about 80,450 people will be diagnosed with the disease in 2026, with approximately 15,160 deaths expected.
For Houliston, the discovery meant the back pain he had blamed on rugby was suddenly part of a much more serious fight.
‘Looks like a shark attack’
In July, he underwent a 7.5-hour operation to remove the affected kidney and tumor. The surgery left him with a 14-inch scar wrapping around the left side of his torso.
“At least it’s quite cool; it looks like a shark attack,” he told The Sun.
But the news that followed was far more difficult to absorb.
Houliston said he learned his type of cancer could not be treated with chemotherapy or radiation therapy and that the average survival time was four years. He is now due to start immunotherapy at Brighton Hospital.
“Four years is not long, but I’m not going to give up. It is what it is. There’s nothing I can do but crack on, be positive, and fight it,” he shared, adding, “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.”
“I’ve beaten a very rare kind of cancer once. This is quite rare, and I’ll beat it again,” Houliston said.
Second time fighting rare cancer
And when Houliston says he has beaten cancer before, he means it.
He was just 6 years old when he survived rhabdomyosarcoma after developing a tumor in his left ear. The rare cancer forms in soft tissue and is most often diagnosed in children, teenagers and young adults.
More than three decades later, another cancer diagnosis has left Houliston and his family facing an uncertain future, but they are already looking beyond treatment to the memories they still hope to make together.
Houliston, meanwhile, is already setting goals that stretch well beyond his next treatment. He hopes to return to work in October and, once he is allowed to play contact sports again, make it back onto the rugby field within two years.
“Don’t give up, set yourself goals and take little steps,” he said, adding, “I’d love to hear from anyone else with this illness who is doing really well, and to hear about new possible treatments to try.”
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