Man shares most cancers warning signal he ignored earlier than needing 4 inches of his penis amputated
A man who was diagnosed with penile cancer at 26 after ignoring a “very swollen” penis and suffering a terrifying bleed has shared his ordeal seven years on, after treatment including the removal of four inches of his manhood
Hamil recalled the first time he sensed something wasn’t right(Image: ITV)
A 26-year-old opened up about the terrifying experience of surviving penile cancer after dismissing early symptoms. Hamil recalled the first time he sensed something wasn’t right, noticing that his penis was “very swollen” when he went to the toilet one morning.
Seven years after being diagnosed with the devastating cancer and having four inches of his penis removed Hamill has since become a dad. But the journey was a long and scary one, which he candidly shared on This Morning on Tuesday.
He told presenters Ben Shephard and Cat Deeley : “As a 26-year-old man, it was very, um… Hmm, what’s this?
“So I did what every guy would probably do, ignore it, hope it goes away itself, and then we’ll see what happens.
“And then we had the bleed.” The bleeding, he said, was severe.
Not long after he left the bathroom, Hamill was downstairs making a cup of tea when he “felt something wet”. He said blood was everywhere, across the kitchen cupboards, on the floor and on his feet.
He called out to his partner, who rushed down immediately, LADbible reported. Hamill further recalled: “That’s when I thought, ‘Do you know what?
The big wake up call
“‘I need to go and get this checked’. In my head, I didn’t even know penile cancer existed at this point, so I was, like, very… don’t know what’s going on, but something isn’t right.
“So that was the big wake-up call for me to be like, ‘Do you know what? I’ll go and see a doctor now.”
Hamill continued: “I put steroid cream on it for two weeks solidly and there was no change. I went back to the doctors two weeks later and he said it was definitely balanitis.
“But by this point I was in so much pain. It felt like someone was poking a needle into the end of my penis.”
According to the NHS, balanitis is the inflammation of the glans (head) of the penis, resulting in pain, redness, swelling, and itching. It is most common in uncircumcised individuals and young children, often caused by poor hygiene, yeast infections (like thrush), bacterial infections, or skin irritation from soaps and chemicals
Hamill said: “The only way I could get a little bit of pain-free time was in the bathroom or I’d be rocking on the floor. After this, the smell started.”
A really bad smell
He said the stench was “as death”, adding that it “followed” him and was so overpowering that other people noticed it too, as per LADbible. Hamill, known to his mates as “Stumpy”, said: “I had every sign and symptom of penile cancer and the doctor agreed but he said it ‘couldn’t be cancer’ as I was only 26.”
That later proved to be untrue. Hamill said doctors only started to take the issue seriously after he woke up “in a pool of blood” in his brother’s car. He was then sent to a specialist unit at Manchester’s Christie NHS Foundation Trust, where he underwent a circumcision before surgeons amputated four inches of his penis.
Nevertheless, three years later, Hamill became a father for the first time. Balanitis and penile cancer can look similar at first, but they’re very different problems, the University of Oxford explains.
Balanitis itself isn’t cancer. However, doctors warn that ongoing or recurring inflammation that won’t clear up can sometimes be linked to early penile cancer.
One type, BXO (balanitis xerotica obliterans), is seen as a pre-cancerous condition and needs long-term monitoring. Red flags include symptoms that don’t respond to standard treatment, a sore that won’t heal, a lump, or unexplained bleeding, as what looks like “balanitis” could in some cases be something more serious.
Penile cancer is uncommon in the UK, making up less than 1% of male cancers, with around 770 new cases a year. It’s often treatable if caught early, with five-year survival around 80–90%, but outcomes are much worse if it spreads to other organs, where five-year survival can drop to about 10%.
Around 180 men die from it in the UK each year. Risk is higher in older men (most cases are over 50), and is linked to HPV (especially types 16 and 18), phimosis (a tight foreskin), poor hygiene, smoking, and a weakened immune system such as from HIV or anti-rejection drugs after a transplant.
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