A BOXING coach from Llandudno is preparing for his first fight in three years after beating a rare form of cancer.

Mike Egan, a former Muay Thai kickboxing champion, was initially told in August 2021 he had Non-Hodgkin lymphoma, before being re-diagnosed the following month with lymphoblastic t-cell lymphoma.

But Mike, a coach and personal trainer at Gym 13’s Rhos-on-Sea, was given the all-clear in January 2022, and is now just days away from his first fight since learning he had cancer.

He will be fighting Manchester-based boxer Paul Smith at Llandudno’s Broadway Boulevard on March 25, with tickets still available.

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It comes after Mike underwent months of “some of the most intense chemotherapy” staff at The Christie NHS Foundation Trust in Manchester.

Now, though, he’s preparing to take a further step back to normality.

Mike said: “I’m doing really well. My treatment continued until about June 2022, and now I have one year left of maintenance therapy and then that’s it. Things are going great.

“I was always really positive about it – I saw lumps on my body shrinking, I felt better in myself, and when I got the call that all of the cancer gone while I was sat in my garden, I was buzzing.

“The treatment definitely takes over your life, so when you start doing things like this, it feels like you’ve got more of your old life back.”

Mike said he has been back working at the gym for roughly a year now, and was helped along his recovery his fellow Gym 13 coach and personal trainer, Osian Williams.

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Osian, a former professional boxer, ran a half-marathon a day for 30 days in September and October 2021 to raise money for Mike while he was unable to work.

In doing so, he exceeded his fundraising target of £5,000.

Mike added the positive mental impact that being back at work, surrounded by people like Osian, has had on him.

He said: “You’re around people that are motivated and driven, so that kind of attitude rubs off on you, too.

“In the lead-up to a fight, you normally start peaking near to the day itself, and then you try to maintain that.

“I already felt at that level about two weeks ago – I’m fit, confident, and just excited to get in there now.”

Mike’s diagnosis came after he had discovered lumps “the size of ping pong balls” in mid-2021.

But returning to the ring, he said, will see him fulfil one of the goals he set himself at the start of his treatment.

He added: “I had some of the most intense chemotherapy that a person can have; it was exhausting. I went from being a fit, healthy, active person, to barely having half an hour of energy in me in a day.

“I remember once, I had to be pushed around the ward in a wheelchair, because I just couldn’t do it myself.

“People not understanding your situation was probably the hardest thing, because you feel like you’ve got to make excuses, or that you’re dealing with it on your own sometimes.

“I can’t wait to have my moment. At the very beginning, I told the hospital staff about all of the goals I’d set myself for when I got out, and this was one of them.

“The fact that it’s finally happening now gives me a lot of pride.”