Kent golfer Benn Barham reveals kidney cancer scare

Barham has never won on the European tour

Kent golfer Benn Barham has revealed he has a tumour on his kidney which could be cancerous.

The 34-year-old from Ashford, who has a one-year-old daughter, will have an operation to remove it on Tuesday.

"I have a tumour on my right kidney - they're not sure if it's malignant or not so they feel the safest thing is to remove it," Barham told BBC Radio Kent.

"I feel lucky the fact we've found it early and it's on a kidney - you can live without one kidney."

He continued: "If they were to do a biopsy on it and it happens to be malignant, it could disturb it or possibly spread, so we think the safest thing to do is to remove the kidney."

Barham, who lost his place on the European Tour last year, had been experiencing stomach problems during his last couple of events on the Challenge Tour.

My health is the most important thing for me and my family so that's what I've got to concentrate on now

Benn Barham

"One of the tour doctors was extremely helpful and said that it would be a good idea to get an ultrasound scan, which I did, to see if there's anything going on with my stomach," Barham said.

"As it turned out there wasn't - it was absolutely clear - but there was a shadow on my kidney.

"My GP sent me to have a CT scan to get a clearer look and it showed up that there was a tumour on it."

Barham hopes after the surgery he should be able to resume his life, and career, as normal.

He said: "I do actually feel really lucky - the fact that we've found it.

"It could have been there for a while - it could have grown, it could have spread, it could have done anything but I'm up for the challenge.

"The advice the surgeon has given me is 'once it's out - don't take up any contact sports because if the other one gets damaged we're in a different scenario', but I don't intend to do any of that."

Barham had hoped to try and win his tour card back at this year's qualifying school but that is not his priority now.

"I don't think I'm going to be fit enough to play in Q-school so my ranking next year will be just a Challenge Tour ranking," Barham added.

"I've not played well enough to keep a ranking on the main tour but my health is the most important thing for me and my family so that's what I've got to concentrate on."