Lawyer Adrian Hartnett-Beasley had extra reason to feel merry this holiday season.

Two weeks before Christmas he was officially taken off the King Edward VII Memorial oncology list after a five-year cancer journey.

His response was: “Deck the halls!”

“We did not do anything specific to celebrate but the time with my family and friends was just that much more special,” Mr Hartnett-Beasley said.

He thinks a habit fostered in childhood may have saved his life.

Growing up, there was always a plastic card hanging in the shower. On one side was instructions on how to check your breasts for signs of cancer for females and on the other side was a self check for men.

“I got into the habit of doing regular self examinations,” he said. “I credit my mom, Lorraine Beasley, for having that information card there. Being a nurse, she taught me to be comfortable with my body so that I knew when things were off.”

In early April 2019 he discovered a lump in his testicles.

Mr Hartnett-Beasley’s doctor was not overly concerned, but referred him to a urologist, just in case.

“They did an ultrasound,” he said. “I was feeling optimistic.”

A few days later he got a call from the urologist asking him to come in; there was an issue.

“When a doctor calls you after 5pm, you know something is up,” Mr Hartnett-Beasley said.

In the doctor’s office, the urologist studiously avoided the word “cancer”, but talked about surgery.

“I said, ‘are we talking about cancer’,” Mr Hartnett-Beasley said. “He said that with testicular cancer you cannot confirm cancer until you have a biopsy done and they do the biopsy after removing the tumour. With that type of cancer if you break the tumour you risk spreading cancer cells throughout the body.”

After surgery, testicular cancer was confirmed but Mr Hartnett-Beasley was told the tumour had been stage one so was unlikely to spread.

“Meanwhile, at work I had gone through a promotion,” he said. “With that came an increase in insurance coverage but I had to apply for it.”

However, his insurance company would not increase his coverage until he was clear of cancer for six months. When he went in for his six-month scan, he fully expected that the doctor would give him his letter declaring him cancer free and that would be it.

Instead, the doctor dropped a bombshell. The cancer had spread into his abdomen through his lymph nodes.

For treatment, he had a choice between chemotherapy and radiation. There were advantages and disadvantages to both. He picked chemotherapy because it covered more of the body and was less targeted.

“I thought cancer is not going to get me again,” Mr Hartnett-Beasley said. “Ultimately, I felt that my body had betrayed me, a little bit.”

He had nine weeks of chemotherapy in Bermuda, with the last round right before Christmas 2019.

He was 39 when the cancer was found.

“I did not celebrate my 40th birthday that year,” he said. “I just did not feel like it. Everything felt off.”

During this cancer journey he wrote a bucket list of things he wanted to do with his life before he died.

His list included planning an extravagant funeral for himself; baking all of his late grandmother’s recipes one last time and writing enough Christmas and birthday cards for his five-year-old son Grayson, to last for years.

In the period since then, Mr Hartnett-Beasley, who lives in Hamilton Parish, has done a lot of baking, even winning ribbons at the Agricultural Show, but he never planned his own funeral and never wrote those cards to his son.

“I deleted that bucket list,” he said. “I am the kind of person that just goes and does things when I want to do them. Chemo was awful but the doctors were confident it would work. Testicular cancer is eminently treatable and survivable.”

According to Cancer Research UK, after treatment, 95 per cent of men survive this type of cancer for more than five years.

“There is always a chance the treatment will not work but the longer you go without a recurrence after treatment, the better your chances,” he said. “That is why crossing the five-year mark before Christmas felt so important to me.”

He described chemo as rough, but also joyful, at times.

“On the first day of chemo I thought I was going to be one of those chemo warriors, who diaries and archives and looks glam every day,” he said. “That lasted two days.”

There were days when he felt like he was not sure if he could get through treatment but he made it.

After getting the final all-clear last month he wrote on social media: “It has been a whirlwind of emotions but overall I am so very grateful for the amazing Shane D Hartnett-Beasley (husband) and my family and friends for the love, support and grace they have shown me. I am so happy I get to keep being a papa to my son, Grayson, hopefully for a long, long time. Prayers do really work and I am thankful for each and every one of them.”

One of his goals now is to write a memoir about his life.

“It is still in the early stages,” he said. “I have title ideas and I know what the cover looks like. It will be about my experiences with cancer, adopting my son and living in a multicultural world.”

He does not care if it is ever actually published.

“I just want to write it and it will be something for my son to have,” he said.

In the meantime, Mr Hartnett-Beasley is urging other people to trust science.

“See your doctor regularly,” he said. “Perform self-examinations. Do not mess around. It is not worth it.”