‘OWNING’ CANCER STORY SET TRANSFORMATION IN MOTION
Man who lost testicles to disease can joke about the ‘balls’ it takes to survive
When Christopher Lloyd hands you his business card, the first thing you notice is that it’s round. And why not? After all, Lloyd is president of Oneball — a charitable, completely volunteer-driven, cancer organization focusing on testicular cancer.
The next thing you notice is Lloyd loves to joke. Right on that glossy orange-and-purple round business card is Oneball’s motto: “Give cancer a kick in the groin!”
The 30-year-old chemical engineer, who makes a living helping to develop artificial intelligence tools in his field, says he’s “nuts” about telling “ballsy” jokes that he can rattle off one after another, which helps to break down the discomfort that surrounds discussing the leading form of cancer for young males between the ages of 15 to 34.
That Lloyd must innovate in his paying job clearly has paid off for his volunteer activities as he won the Innovation Award for an individual or group at the Calgary Stampede’s Western Legacy Awards on Nov. 15 and earlier in the year he won another innovation award from the Calgary Chamber of Volunteer Organizations.
That Lloyd has had testicular cancer not once but twice means he knows better than most the fears and issues young men face when they receive that frightening diagnosis.
Lloyd’s first brush with testicular cancer happened in the summer after finishing his first year of university.
He was just an average 18-yearold working a summer job at Swiss Chalet.
“I canned (hit my testicles) myself when I was getting off of my parents’ elliptical machine, but getting canned saved my life,” says Lloyd.
“I was diagnosed July 12, 2006, and I had surgery July 13 — the next day.”
In those 24 hours between diagnosis and surgery Lloyd had to quit his job, make a sperm deposit for freezing, which costs $600 right away.
Every year since, Lloyd pays about $250 annually to keep his sperm frozen.
“I always joke that my future kids are already leeching money off of me,” he says with a chuckle.
On a routine checkup 4½ years later, on Dec. 10, 2010, Lloyd was diagnosed with another bout of testicular cancer.
He was operated on one week later.
“I was struggling with questions like, Will I ever have kids? Will any woman ever love me? And am I going to survive this?” recalls Lloyd, who was reached in California where he celebrated U.S. Thanksgiving with his girlfriend at her aunt’s place.
“That’s not something you should be facing alone but, sadly, that’s the path that many men go down, suffering in silence,” says Lloyd.
“There weren’t a lot of resources back then.”
For seven years, he didn’t share much about what he’d been through until he attended a business success course where everyone had to give a speech about an important time in their lives.
“I did a terrible job. I broke down, I was in tears, I was shaking. I couldn’t believe that I had buried these emotions for so long.”
After he spoke, however, many people told him how inspired they were by his story.
“That’s when I realized that my story was bigger than myself.
“You can either own your story or your story can own you,” he says.
“For the first seven years, my story owned me. I didn’t talk about it. I didn’t want to be judged or pitied or anything like that, so there were a lot of issues that went unaddressed. But when you start owning your story, that transformed my life.”
Oneball was started by other men in 2008. Lloyd joined in 2013 and took over as president in 2015.
Besides offering emotional support, Oneball has funded important research and also financially helps men deal with the almost $6,000 of unfunded drug costs associated with the disease, including the freezing of their sperm.
“After losing not one but two testicles to cancer, my personal motto is that ‘It takes precisely zero balls to make a difference.’ ”
It’s a funny line and for Lloyd it symbolizes his choice to have a positive and open outlook on his cancer to help others.
On Saturday, Oneball is holding its annual BallsOut Beer Tour and tickets are still available.
Just like his business card, Christopher Lloyd stands out as a difference-maker in a province that is filled with them.