IA little more than a rugby match will be played on Sunday, November 24, at Yvon-Chevalier. On the occasion of the 8e day of the Regional 1 championship, against Pimpine, US Saintes rugby highlights the national operation to raise awareness of male cancers, Movember. For the club’s director, Benoît Patarin, 38, it’s not just a good deed. He speaks without taboo for the sake of raising public awareness.
His life was turned upside down by illness. “Around ten years ago, my father, Jacques Patarin, had symptoms. He was diagnosed with bladder cancer. He was operated on several times but died at age 67, several things coming together. He was a figure in the town of Saintes. Three years later, I was 32, I was still a rugby player, the color of my urine started to become strange, the color of coke. It stank. I went to consult. They found a 7 centimeter tumor on my bladder, like a pétanque ball. I had emergency surgery. »
“I got along very well with Doctor Forgues. There is a human element in the middle of all that,” emphasizes Benoît Patarin.
Philippe Ménard / SO
Three years of chemo
The tumor is cancerous, Benoît begins a three-year process of chemotherapy. “It was something heavy. My sporting career came to a screeching halt. Despite everything, I managed to have a child. It was a fight, not to give up. The first three months, I was depressed at home. It was my rugby friends who got me out of there. The club allowed me to take a professional qualification certificate as a rugby union technician,” he says, very grateful.
“It was a fight, not to give up. The first three months, I was depressed at home. It was my rugby friends who got me out of there”
A refrigeration worker since the age of 16, he changed paths. In September 2024, the club, with 500 members, hired him. This Sunday, Benoît Patarin brings his touch with a first participation in Movember, a cause espoused for several years by the rugby community, with these mustaches which flourish on the pitches in November. US Saintes rugby, which runs a very dynamic sports and health section, the Rocs & Roses, has been involved for several years in Pink October and the prevention of female cancers. “It was time to take care of the men!” », smiles the director.
A reference service
Today in total remission, he has maintained strong links with the professionals in the urology department of the Saintes hospital center, “one of the best in France”. “We receive 200 to 300 phone calls a day. We are six surgeons, with a well-equipped and very dynamic team,” confirms Doctor Aurélien Forgues, member of the department headed by Damien Emeriau.
Philippe Ménard / SO
Doctor Aurélien Forgues is part of the urology department of the hospital center, very well placed in national rankings.
The operation begins with a health village set up at the Yvon-Chevalier stadium from 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., with information on prevention, healthy sports, dietetics and nutrition. In the afternoon, entry to the stadium will be exceptionally free (Team B match at 1:45 p.m., Flag team match at 3:30 p.m.). Nursing students from the Health Careers Training Institute (IFMS) will take part in a fun quiz. The urology department will have the opportunity to communicate about male cancers. The day’s proceeds will be donated to an association.
