Ethan Davies: Former Wales Sevens player announces rare cancer diagnosis
- Published
Ethan Davies represented Wales Under-20s in the Six Nations and Junior World Championship tournaments
Former Wales Sevens player Ethan Davies has announced he has a rare form of cancer.
Davies has been diagnosed with Hepatosplenic T Cell Lymphoma which affects his liver and spleen.
The 28-year-old needs a stem-cell transplant and has appealed for a donor.
Davies is a former Wales Under-20s international, played for the Sevens squad between 2015 and 2020, and was a member of Pontypool RFC last season.
He wrote on social media: "For those that don't already know, I have been diagnosed with Hepatosplenic T Cell Lymphoma. It's a very rare form of cancer that is affecting my liver and spleen.
"To beat this I'm going to need a stem-cell transplant and for that to happen I need to find a donor.
"So the more people I can reach with this, the better chance I have of finding a match.
"Not only that, if you aren't a match for me you could be for someone else and save their life.
"Initially I had no intentions of posting anything on social media about this, but after thinking things over it makes more sense to do so.
"The more people that sign up, the more matches they will find for others as well. Even if one person finds a match from me doing this it will have made a difference."
Davies played for the Wales Sevens side in the World Cup in San Francisco and Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast in 2018.
More recently, Davies has played semi-professionally for Pontypool while training as an electrician.
In February 2022, he started experiencing signs of thrombocytopenia (deficiency of platelets in the blood), which doctors assumed at the time was caused by a viral infection.
After a short course of medication it was assumed the condition was resolved, as his platelet count had returned to a healthy level.
The low count resurfaced in June and was worse than before, accompanied by a very sore stomach after eating.
Davies was put back on a course of steroids, although this time they had little effect.
In July, Davies had a CT scan with doctors realising his spleen had enlarged to twice its normal size, and he was admitted for testing to discover a root cause.
After various blood and bone-marrow tests and further scans, Davies was diagnosed with the blood cancer.
Davies was due to start his first round of intensive chemotherapy on 23 August and he will need further treatment and a blood stem-cell transplant from a donor later this year.
There is no match in his family so Davies is now searching for an unrelated, external stem cell donor.
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"When news broke amongst the squad about Ethan the boys took time to reflect," said Wales Sevens coach Richie Pugh.
"They understand he has been a big part of the performance programme.
"He was a special player when he was on the world series with Wales. He did a lot in the Welsh jersey, so our thoughts are with him, and we want to support him and give him strength through this time.
"I know messages have been going out there about registering to be a donor and that is the first thing we can all do, put that link out there to show people that we can all play a part in supporting Ethan in that.
"We wish him all the best in his battle. I know he is a fighter, and he is a strong kid and we're all here for him."