TOM Hine believes that competing in the London Marathon has closed a dark chapter of his life.

Hine, who has raised close to £3,000 for Orchid Cancer UK, completed the 26.2 mile course just two years after winning his battle against testicular cancer.

And the Bowers & Pitsea full-back is now keen to look towards the future rather than dwelling on the past.

“It would never have crossed my mind to do the marathon if I didn’t have a reason to do it,” said the 25-year-old.

“If you have a reason to run it, that gets you through it.

“With everything that has happened, I set competing competing in the London Marathon within two years as my goal.

“There was a sense of achievement when I crossed the finish line and it was a relief that I had achieved my goal.

“I wanted to compete in the marathon last year, but I suffered a nasty knee injury and it left my thinking whether I would ever get as fit as I had been or whether I would ever get back in the Bowers team regularly.

“However, the knee injury was nothing when you compare it to what I have been through.

“Hopefully completing my goal means I have closed that chapter and I can now get on with my life.”

Hine took on the London Marathon, alongside thousands of other runners from across the globe, in a bid to raise awareness and funds for Orchid Cancer UK.

The charity is close to Hine’s heart and he is proud of the recovery he has made having battled against two types of cancer - known as multifocal seminoma and embryonal carcinoma.

“I’m perfectly fine now and I have nothing to be worried about,” added Hine.

“I still have people keeping tabs on me and I have tests every six months, but it was more of a mental challenge than I was expecting.

“After getting the all clear, people think that you can just move on with your life and you don’t have any of the affects.

“But I still had no hair and was a bit overweight.

“You process it all a bit later on because you are still going from appointment to appointment.

“Football was my escape and Bowers were great to me.”

Although Hine was elated to complete the London Marathon after months of preparation, he was a little disappointed with his time of four hours and 41 minutes.

“I wanted to finish around the four hour mark and I would have been happy to have finished just beyond that,” admitted Hine.

“In the end, I finished with a time of four hours and 41 minutes.

“After 20 miles, I was starting to cramp up a bit so I had to rein it in a bit.

“I was more interesting in getting over the finish line in one piece than struggling to get there at all.

“Although I had set myself a target, the biggest thing for me was completing the marathon.”