DOCTORS thought a dad’s sore testicles were caused by a nasty infection – but it was actually a sign of a brain tumour.

Jack Donovan made multiple trips to A&E with headaches, reflux and testicular pain.

Doctors thought it was a sexually transmitted infection or testicular torsion – a painful condition that causes the spermatic cord to twist – but as Jack’s symptoms worsened they sent him for further tests.

Finally he was given a CT scan which revealed a lesion on the brain.

“I was confused at first about the need for a CT scan because the pain was in my chest and my testicles but after exploring every other avenue my doctor was stumped and wanted to look at my brain,” said Jack, 29.

“That’s when they spotted this shadow. I was told it was either MS, meningitis or a brain tumour.

“Unfortunately it was a tumour, and on top of that we’ve found out I’m missing an important chromosome to fight it and so my life expectancy was halved from 15 years to just seven.”

Jack was living in Australia with his girlfriend – now his wife – Amy when he was given the terminal diagnosis.

Amy, 26, said: “I got home from work to find Jack lying in the dark on the bathroom floor.

“We’d been back and forth so many times to A&E because of Jack’s mystery testicle pain I didn’t know if we should go back there so I called an out of hours doctor and they sent us back to the hospital.

“Jack was obviously really ill but all his tests came back clear again.

“Finally after the CT scan we were almost relieved to have an answer. And the pain in his testicles and all his other symptoms were because the tumour was pressing on various nerves.”

The couple were planning to stay in Australia after Jack had surgery to remove as much of the tumour as possible.

But six months later they were surprised to find out that Amy was pregnant – so decided to return to Pentwyn in Cardiff.

“With Jack’s diagnosis and an uncertain future around his health coupled with us having a baby we decided it was too much pressure to carry on alone,” Amy said.

“We decided to move back home to be close to friends and family in Wales and continue Jack’s treatment on home soil.”

Two years on Jack’s tumour has grown 10 per cent, despite treatment to try and reduce it.

The couple, who now have an 11-month-old little boy, Jaxon, are documenting their family life on a YouTube channel called ‘Jack Donovan – Life Is One Big and Beautiful Struggle’.

Jack is waiting for another brain surgery in UHW Cardiff which he will be awake for.

Surgeons will remove as much of the tumour as possible and then they should be able to give Jack a new prognosis and treatment plan.

“They’ll never remove the whole thing because it basically has arms and legs but they’ll take what they can to give me more time,” Jack said.

“Having Jaxon has been an absolute godsend for me and Amy. He makes the hard days easier and always makes us laugh.

“Having a child takes the focus away from you and there are days when I really need that.

“I just want to spend as much quality time with my family as I can.”