"I had everything in place and the oncology team said, ‘We won’t stop, this is more important that Covid, we’ll keep seeing you whatever it takes’," Mr Fa’asega said.
"That was great, although I did feel for the people who were in the bubble and told we’ll see you when we can see you, because that would not have been a pleasant scenario."
Mr Fa’asega was just 44 when he was diagnosed with cancer.
A year on he is one of the lucky ones, his disease having been detected and then treated soon enough to prevent it spreading any further than his bowel and liver.
While he was aware of the Dry July event, which raises money for cancer organisations through pledges for people to not drink alcohol for a month, Mr Fa’asega now had a compelling reason to take part
in the event.
"I’d heard of it but never done it," he said.
"When they contacted me and asked if I wanted to do it, I said, ‘Yes, not a problem’.
Dry July this year will support cancer charities the Prostate Cancer Foundation NZ, Bowel Cancer NZ, Look Good Feel Better, and new recipient Pinc & Steel, a cancer rehabilitation physiotherapy trust.
"I only got halfway through my therapy with Pinc & Steel," Mr Fa’asega confessed.
"I got too energetic and ruptured my Achilles."
With little history of bowel cancer in the family, the disease was not on Mr Fa’asega’s radar when he noticed blood in his faeces.
He told his GP, who ordered a test which discovered bad news.
Chris Jackson, who Mr Fa’asega knew from the Saturday morning sideline as a fellow soccer dad, suddenly became Dr Jackson, medical director of the Cancer Society, as the family began their cancer journey.
"The doctors said, ‘You’ve been caught early, we can fix that’, which is the kind of reassuring words that you want to hear," Mr Fa’asega said.
After nine months of treatment, multiple bouts of chemotherapy, and having half his liver and a section of bowel removed, Mr Fa’asega — a father of three boys — is now clear of cancer but will be under constant surveillance for the disease’s return.
"[Wife] Steph stepped up and took care of us all, she ran the ship for a year, and we couldn’t have done it without her.
"You don’t expect it, you really don’t, when you live an active and reasonably healthy lifestyle ... we just had to put our heads down, get stuck in, and get it done."
