Three months on, relentless chemotherapy and doses of interferon had turned Edwards, whose frame reaches well over six foot, into a grey-haired shadow. But worse was to come.

"One day there was an explosion in my groin," he recalls. "This horrible Vesuvius -- like a giant boil." Edwards was whisked straight to A&E.

The eruption turned out to be cancerous and marked a potentially terminal decline in Edward's health. It was then that doctors confronted him with the worst decision a man could face.

"They asked for permission to amputate my penis," Edwards says. Demoralised, exhausted and full of drugs, Edwards gave his answer. "No, I told them. I just could not face another operation." Edwards started arguing with the consultant, whom he later nicknamed Slasher. "I told him unless you can say for certain this will save me, I'd rather die with my penis on, thank you very much."
...Alternet