'I thought my back pain was from 33 years of playing rugby - but doctors have given me four years to live'

'I thought my back pain was from 33 years of playing rugby - but doctors have given me four years to live' Rob Houliston, 41, from Sussex dismissed his back pain as a rugby injury before being diagnosed with renal cell carcinoma A dad who attributed his back pain to 33 years of playing rugby discovered it was actually a sign of a deadly cancer. Rob Houliston, 41, began experiencing back twinges in February, but brushed off the symptoms. By March, he started feeling nauseous after eating, and by mid-May he had shed three-and-a-half stone and hung up his rugby boots for good. He visited Princess Royal Hospital, Sussex, in June after being hit between the legs by a dog, which left him with a swollen testicle. Doctors performed an ultrasound to check for testicular cancer, but spotted a hard, swollen vein behind his enlarged testicle, which they said pointed to a kidney problem, prompting them to scan his left kidney as well. A CT scan uncovered a large tumour on his kidney, and he was subsequently diagnosed with renal cell carcinoma. The tumour had been pressing against Rob's stomach, which accounted for his nausea and loss of appetite. He had his kidney and the tumour removed in July but has been told the average survival rate is four years with his type of cancer. Rob is due to begin immunotherapy on September 29, at Brighton hospital. Rob, a security-systems installer from near East Grinstead, West Sussex, said: "I just thought 'of course I have backache, I play rugby'". When I was hit by the dog, I went down like a sack of potatoes; we all laughed. "My left testicle went massive, honestly like a tennis ball. I was struggling to sit down, but I just thought 'it'll get better'." Rob previously had a rare tumour called rhabdomyosarcoma in his left ear at just six years old. His latest cancer diagnosis cannot be treated with chemotherapy or radiotherapy, and doctors told him the average survival time is just four years. He said: "Four years is not long, but I'm not going to give up. I've beaten a very rare kind of cancer once. This is quite rare, and I'll beat it again. "It is what it is. There's nothing I can do but crack on, be positive, and fight it. 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". "There have been cases where people in their 80s have survived ten years with this. I'm strong and quite young, so there's no reason I can't do better than that. "I think there are cases where immunotherapy has shrunk tumours like this, and they've disappeared. There are always new treatments coming up as well." Rob and his wife Larissa, 37, a carer, wear matching t-shirts emblazoned with 'it is what it is' to their hospital appointments. He is left with a 14-inch scar around his left torso following the seven and a half hour operation on July 15. "At least it's quite cool; it looks like a shark attack," he said. Rob, along with his family, including children Isabel, 14, Lucie, 12, Ivy, eight, Jakob, three, and sister Sidney Hamilton-Williams, 39, have raised £17,500 on a GoFundMe page for a once-in-a-lifetime trip to Disneyland. He said: "I'm just blown away by people's incredible kindness and generosity. "We couldn't believe it, we reached the £8,000 target in six hours and raised £17,000 in 24." His ambitions now are to return to work in October and get back on the rugby pitch in two years' time, once he's been given the all-clear for contact sports. He said: "Don't give up, set yourself goals and take little steps. 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."