David Brooks on his battle with cancer

In October 2021, aged 24, Cherries star Brooks was informed he had Hodgkin lymphoma, a rare type of cancer affecting the body’s lymph nodes.

Thankfully, the Wales international made a full recovery, declaring he had been given the all-clear in May 2022.

He made his long-awaited return to competitive action last month, coming off the bench for a Premier League game at Aston Villa.

Sitting down for a lengthy interview with Premier League Productions, Brooks relived the time his world unravelled.

“I found I just couldn’t get my legs to take me where they needed to go,” he said, discussing the period before he was diagnosed.

“It was really frustrating because at that point, I didn’t know there was anything wrong.

“I went away to play with Wales and they do a medical check at the start of international duty and I explained to the doctor that I’d been struggling to sleep and had experienced some night sweats as well as a sudden drop in weight.

“Twenty minutes later he came to my room and said, ‘I don’t want to alarm you but everything you have described to me is a symptom of cancer.’

“It was a big one to try to digest and knowing you had to ring your mum and dad and tell them something so big when you still didn’t know for sure yourself, meant it was a very tough couple of hours.

“I went for a blood test that evening and had more tests the following day and within 24 hours I was back in London having a biopsy. We were yet to receive confirmation but the doctor told me that it did look like it was cancer and that I needed to prepare myself for that news.

“You almost don’t want to believe it. When you hear the word ‘cancer’ as a young lad you don’t expect yourself to be in that position where you need to know everything about it, unless you’ve had a relative that has gone through that process.

“The worst pops into your head because as soon as you hear the word ‘cancer’ you don’t think it can be positive in any way and you look at the bad side of it. It was a difficult one to try to process.”

He continued: “I’m not in touch with my emotions on a day-to-day basis but when a cancer diagnosis comes into play, it’s just very different. It’s difficult to stay composed in that situation but I never really let it out until I was on my own.

“I didn’t want a fuss and just let everyone do what they needed to do, then when I was on my own, I had a bit of a cry and hoped everything was going to be alright.

“I was diagnosed with stage 2 Hodgkin lymphoma and the prognosis was a positive one. I was told I would be given six months of chemotherapy and would hopefully be okay after that.

“You have to be prepared that you might not get good news at the end of that period and deal with it as it lies, but I had to have it my head that it was six months of chemo and then just try to get back to playing football.”

Brooks then moved on to treatment.

He explained: “I had chemo once every two weeks and for three or four hours, I’d be attached to a drip which would pump the drugs in to kill the cancer cells.

“The treatment was slightly misleading to start with because the first one wasn’t as terrible as I feared and I thought it wouldn’t be too bad. But it hit home on the second and third and progressively got worse over time.

“I’d have the chemo, feel horrendous for a week, start to feel a bit better, then as soon as you start to feel well enough to leave the house, you have to go back and do it all again. It was a very different type of life to what I’m used to.

“My girlfriend used to come to every chemo and I remember just trying to fall asleep so I wouldn’t be sick. I didn’t want to be ill so I’d have all the anti-sickness and drowsiness pills to help me deal with it.”

He added: “My girlfriend was amazing. No-one wants to find themselves in that situation and she’s probably seen the worst of me with all the side effects of chemo, but I can’t speak highly enough of her.

“I’d lost every bit of muscle and put on more than 15kg of weight so I needed to get that off me and put muscle on before I could even think about stepping on a football pitch again.”

After receiving the all-clear in May 2022, Brooks made his way back to training with Cherries.

Discussing the moment he was told he could return to football, the 25-year-old said: “There were a few tears in the house.

“I was just over the moon that it had worked and I didn’t have to go through it any more.

“When we were promoted, I celebrated for 10-15 mins and had to go and sit down because I was completely out of breath. It was a reality check.

“Then when I went back to work, I just really enjoyed being back in the changing room again never mind playing a Premier League game.”

• David Brooks hopes to make impact during Premier League run-in

Brooks then suffered a further setback during his first run-out for the development squad, in a friendly at Brentford in August 2022.

“I never doubted that I would keep trying but when I had done three months of hard work and was close to getting back into a match day squad, I played in an under-23s game and my hamstring popped,” he said.

“I’d never experienced a muscle injury before and that was probably a different type of knockdown because it dawned on me that my body might not be the same after treatment. The thought that I might not be able to do what I dreamt of all my life was a difficult thought.

“But I never stopped trying and thankfully my body managed to pull together to get me back. Now I just want to be as fit as possible whenever I’m called upon and that’s all part of the process. Just get as fit as I can and play as many games as possible.”

Brooks, who has now played twice as a substitute for Cherries this season, netted for the development squad during Tuesday night’s 6-0 win over Eastleigh in the Hampshire Senior Cup.

Brooks is supporting Cancer Research UK's Race for Life in Bournemouth and Poole.

Money raised at the event enables scientists to find new ways to prevent, diagnose and treat cancer - helping to save more lives.

“Football was my life for 24 years before I was diagnosed and for a brief moment, in the grand scheme of things, football didn’t matter. It was about my health and my mentality, said Brooks.

“But to be able to play football again is a real blessing and I hope people will take part in Race for Life to support the kind of research that helped to get me back on the pitch.”