Man puts up 'check your nuts' Christmas lights after having testicular cancer

Christian Roach decorates his house every year at Christmas time - but this year's trimmings look a little different.

The 41-year-old, from Trealaw in the Rhondda , has decided to spread a useful message, rather than a traditional festive one.

Outside his home, among all the lights, you'll find the words "check your nuts".

It comes after Christian's battle with testicular cancer, which has prompted him to spread his message, urging men to keep a check of things downstairs.

"Check your nuts" outside Christian's house (Richard Swingler)

Christian said: "This time last year I had problems - I had testicular cancer. I found out this time last year.

"I went to the doctors and they said I had testicular cancer. I then had to have an operation, to have a testicle removed and I was laid up for about two months. And then I had chemotherapy.

"Now I've got to go to tests for five years."

While now, he's happy to talk openly about what happened to him, last year was a very different story.

"It hit me for six, it was hard," he said.

"Going back when I had it, if someone had said I'd be doing something like this now, I wouldn't have thought so If I'm honest.

Nicola, Madison, 14, Kobi, seven, and Christian outside their home (Richard Swingler)

The lights have attracted attention from far and wide (Richard Swingler)

The "check your nuts" message is important to Christian, so he decided to take it a step further than just trying to raise awareness on social media.

He receives messages daily and talks to men about what they're going through and his own experience.

And he's had lots of people stop and stare at the unusual decorations outside his home.

"I said to my partner, I'd like to put something outside the house. It started off as a bit of joke," he said.

Christian and his partner Nicola got some wood and made a sign and painted it.

Christian was diagnosed with testicular cancer last year (Richard Swingler)

He said: "Nicola trimmed it up for me, and put it outside the house.

"We've always decorated outside the house, but not to this extreme.

"The sign's got 750 lights on it so it is glowing up a bit," he laughed.

"I put a picture on Facebook and it's gone a bit crazy. We're having people pulling up outside the house and taking random pictures."

"We had Chinese last night and the delivery man came here and I had to explain to him what it meant," he laughed.

For more information about testicular cancer and the symptoms to look out for, see https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/testicular-cancer/