Balogun's journey to England debut after cancer diagnosis

Christiana Balogun had the date 4 November, 2022 printed on her boots as she ran out for England during their win against Italy in the Women's Six Nations on her international debut.

It marks the day that Balogun finished her final round of chemotherapy after being diagnosed earlier that year with burkitt lymphoma - an aggressive, fast-growing type of cancer.

"The IV chemo was the biggest thing, it's what gave me the biggest side-effects and after that finished I was like, 'OK let's go, we're on the home straight now'," Balogun told BBC Points West.

"It's a date that I hold very close to me and 'cancer free' was underneath that as well."

The back-row forward had just moved from Wasps to Bristol in May 2022 when she found a lump in her neck.

She was 24 years old, finding her feet after relocating to a new city, in pre-season training ahead of the 2022-23 campaign and undergoing testing to determine what the lump was when three months later she found out it was cancer.

Balogun hadn't even had played for the Bears for the first time when her career and life were thrown upside down.

"The day I found out my diagnosis I started treatment six days later so there wasn't a lot of time to process what was happening, what I was going through," Balogun said.

Doctors told Balogun to pack a bag for a week stay in hospital to begin treatment and she even packed her rugby kit, initially believing she'd be able to continue with training.

"When I think back to it now I'm just like that is the most ridiculous thing to have ever done, you've literally found out you have cancer and you think you are going to train on Monday after is absolutely insane," Balogun said.

"On reflection that is probably a little bit of me not accepting the diagnosis that I had at the time and just thought about the rugby, the rugby, the rugby."

What followed was three rounds of intense chemotherapy. As well losing her hair, side-effects also included itching, colds and flu because her immune system was compromised, mouth ulcers and blood transfusions which left her physically drained of energy.

But the mental toll was just as tough, if not tougher.

"Emotionally it was difficult because I had just moved to Bristol, I didn't have any close or long-term friends in Bristol, I had to really attach myself to people I had only really made friends with a couple of months prior," Balogun said.

"I didn't have any family in Bristol either – I found it quite isolating."

Balogun finished her treatment that winter and was given the all-clear in January 2023 but picking up her life and career after and returning to what things were like before the diagnosis was far from simple.

"You don't look like yourself anymore when you lose your hair on your head and your face – having no eyebrows, no eyelashes," Balogun said.

"Physically I experienced a lot of weight gain and as an athlete my identity was a little bit all over the place.

"The mental effects of chemotherapy topped the physical side effects of it. You think you've finished treatment, you've had three months block of it and you're like, 'OK cool I'm done, I can go back to what I was doing before,' but that's not the case.

"You essentially have to re-find yourself again and mourn the person you were before the treatment."

But Balogun, now 28, did return to rugby. She represented the Barbarians in 2023 a year after her diagnosis and has since gone on to establish herself in Bristol's Premiership Women's Rugby (PWR) side.

Earlier this month she signed a new contract with the Bears after also being called up to England's Six Nations, external squad.

When Maddie Feaunati was ruled out with injury days before the game in Italy, Balogun was brought into the matchday 23 and midway through the second half was called in to play.

Team-mates who Balogun barely knew four years ago are now among her closest friends, particularly prop Simi Pam who was in Italy to celebrate her first cap.

The week building up to the match was made even more poignant by the fact it marked a year since Balogun's father passed away.

"It did feel very special to be able to run out on the Saturday and remember the dad that he was to me," Balogun said.

"He would have always wanted me to pursue the rugby career and what I've got going on now and just thinking back to it I know he'd be very, very proud of me."

Balogun is back with Bristol ahead of their final game of the PWR season at home to Exeter on 30 May and says the past four years have given her a different outlook.

"I always say to myself that 'you are beyond the hard times that you are experiencing right now'," she said.

"That's the same outlook I try to have with any other difficult times or hard things that I am experiencing - that it's only temporary and [think of] the bigger picture.

"You have other things to reach and achieve."

Additional reporting by Jack Killah, BBC Radio Somerset