The last thing I’ll ever write for the Racing Post as the owner of two kidneys

This is a sample of Lee Mottershead's weekly diary, one of a number of exclusive emails available to Racing Post+ Ultimate subscribers.

This is the last thing I'll write for the Racing Post as the owner of two kidneys. 

That's an unusual way to start a diary but the last few weeks have been anything but normal. For that reason, and without intending to shock, I'm going to begin by telling you about the lump on my right testicle.

I found it on August 10, the day after the Shergar Cup. My great fortune – and there is a lot of it in this story – was that I managed to see a specialist the following day. He expressed confidence the lump presented no dangers but nonetheless suggested it would be prudent to have an ultrasound scan. 

The next bit of good luck came when the radiologist spotted a vascular abnormality inside the testicle. As a result, he also scanned my right kidney. I'll be forever indebted to him for doing that.

In a phone call on the Monday of Ebor week I was told the lump was a tunical cyst. That was the good news. The bad news was I probably had kidney cancer. This diagnosis was confirmed two weeks later. "At the very least you'll get a diary piece out of it," was one of my husband's comments. To be fair, he wasn't wrong.

In a London hospital last Thursday I was shown an image taken from a CT scan that introduced me to a tumour large enough to merit having its own postcode. The urologist's belief is the tumour has been squatting inside the kidney for five years. In all that time there have been absolutely no symptoms.

I'm booked in for surgery in the coming days. The kidney will be removed and with it, all being well, the cancer. A little internet research suggests the surgeon is worthy of being called the Aidan O’Brien of kidneys. I'm hoping that on this occasion he won't feel any need to employ the services of a pacemaker. 

A friend sent me a message in which he said one of his relatives began suffering kidney problems from the age of seven. Fortunately there was no need for concern as at the age of 18 they became adult knees. Another friend said he would do anything he could to help but he drew the line at giving me a kidney. That made me smile.

Good humour has been welcome these last few weeks. So has good sport and, somewhat surprisingly, good punting. I managed to back the Ebor winner and at around the same time also picked up a tasty price about Al Riffa for the Melbourne Cup thanks to the Flutter firms taking a surprisingly downbeat view of his claims. So long as the surgeon removes the correct kidney, there's a good chance I'll be able to make it to Flemington to see him run.

An ante-post bet on Al Riffa has me dreaming ahead of the Melbourne CupCredit: Patrick McCann (racingpost.com/photos)

Therein lies one of the reasons for writing this diary. 

Wednesday's campaign event in Westminster featured prominent figures from across racing highlighting its importance to the nation. That can be measured on any number of levels, not least through what the sport delivers financially, culturally and as a way of bringing communities together. For the vast majority of those who follow racing, as opposed to work in racing, it also provides a valuable distraction from the trials and tribulations of day-to-day life.

That has most definitely been true for me in recent weeks. 

Having the opportunity to watch and write about racing across four consecutive days at York was enormously helpful, as were subsequent visits to Sandown, Haydock, Newton Abbot and Doncaster. In a wider sense, having plenty of work to do has been useful, although seeing the wonderfully positive Saeed bin Suroor last week – for an upcoming interview due to run as part of our Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe countdown – can be called work in only the very loosest sense.

I haven't been to Thirsk for approaching 20 years but I'm told that in one of their toilets is a poster linked to a 2019 'Knowthynuts' campaign, for which Tom Marquand, Oisin Murphy and Charles Bishop stripped off to raise awareness about testicular cancer. The campaign urged men to regularly check themselves and to be more prepared to take action if concerned. Had I not done exactly that, my future could have been horribly bleak.

Richard Byram was also willing to seek help. The Yorkshire Post's racing reporter started to become ill not long after attending the 247th St Leger two years ago. Responding to changes in his body, Richard contacted his doctor and discovered he was suffering from a debilitating blood cancer called multiple myeloma. In a cruel twist of fate he then became ill with shingles but, having made notable progress in recent months, he was back to Doncaster on Saturday, making his first trip to the races in two years.

In my current circumstances, I'll be taking a short break on the work front. As a result, this diary will be manned by colleagues, hopefully people with two completely healthy kidneys. 

If there’s one piece of advice I would pass on to them and you it would be, when in doubt, get checked out. 

Doing that may well have saved my life. Over the last few weeks, racing has made that life considerably more enjoyable than it would otherwise have been. Thanks to racing and punting, I've also now got Al Riffa to think about, too.

Read more pieces by Lee Mottershead here:

Scandinavia delivers a thrilling St Leger spectacle - and do not expect Aidan O'Brien's latest Doncaster hero to end up as a pacemaker

Inside the campaign to ‘neutralise’ racing: how an unlikely alliance in the gambling tax war could spark the sport’s ‘Brexit moment’ 

Racing's petition has not cut through with the public - but will the sport now leave the government persuaded or annoyed? 

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