Michael Jestin was relevant for the national team when he suffered from cancer

He grew up in a volleyball family and started playing volleyball in Kristinehamn, when he was ten years old the family moved to Uppsala.

As a youth, he was in the national team preparatory camp.

– It went well and I had dreams of national team games, says Michael Jestin.

When he was 17, he had for some time felt a hardening next to the collarbone.

– But then I went to the US for a year to study and did not check it out.

The hardness never disappeared.

When he got home was examined he first in Uppsala where it was diagnosed as a bone cancer tumor.

He was sent on to Karolinska who thought it was a benign cartilage tumor.

– It became a damn roller coaster for a few months.

In the summer of 2010, when Michael was 19 years old and had joined Uppsala’s A-team, the benign tumor was to be removed.

– I think I lay asleep for 20 hours. It was mainly two doctors who operated, they did a great job.

The doctors removed the tumor that was on the top rib and turned out to be about ten centimeters in each direction.

– I was bleeding afterwards, lost two thirds of all blood in the body.

Within two months, Michael Jestin lost 15 kilos but he still managed to get back to volleyball.

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After the student, he bet wholeheartedly on volleyball and received an offer of a contract with the league club in Bordeaux. He was going to France after Christmas and took a job at Posten in the autumn to earn some money.

During the second day’s lunch break, he got the phone call that changed everything.

– When the tumor was examined, it turned out that it was a malignant cancerous tumor. I still have not apologized to those at the Post Office, I just walked away, I just remember calling my mother.

A new and difficult operation awaited Karolinska.

After the operation, he woke up to the words “be afraid of his arm, it must be still for a year”.

– I did not understand anything, what were they talking about?

The tumor had grown around a number of nerves, a couple went out in the left arm and one to the central nervous system.

The doctor who would perform the operation had contacted a colleague who is an expert in nerve transplants. When the medical team was forced to cut the nerves to remove the tumor, the colleague took the sensory nerves from the leg and inserted them into the arm.

– I have no feeling left in my right foot but it has still exceeded my expectations.

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If you meet Michael it is difficult to see that he has problems with his left arm.

– But I can not touch it so well.

The central nervous system was also affected and neither the lungs, heart nor digestion function normally.

Michael did not want to let go of volleyball but continued as coach of Uppsala’s b-team.

– It went really well and was so fun, I also felt that I was quite good as a coach.

He applied for and got into GIH’s coaching program and took care of Uppsala’s ladies before he got the chance to coach Sollentuna’s ladies in the elite series.

In the 2018/19 season, he wanted to try playing in Uppsala in division 1 again.

– With one arm in principle, says Michael with a laugh.

Michael realized that he would not come any further as a player and together with his half-brother Patrik Törner and team captain Adrian Norrby launched a proposal for how the club could establish itself in the highest league with Michael and Patrik as coach.

The board bought the proposal but the start did not turn out as Michael had hoped.

Uppsala was undefeated in division 1 in the 2019/2020 season when the pandemic put an end to continued league play.

When the qualifiers for the elite series were canceled, the Volleyball Association decided that all teams that were in the qualifiers would be allowed to take the step up.

– As I have reduced breathing ability, I was advised by my doctor to be careful, so even if we had played a qualifier, I would not have been able to participate.

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He stayed at home, his partner went shopping, all spring and summer 2020 he lived in isolation.

When the elite series season started again, it was decided that Michael would sit in the stands at certain training sessions and during the matches.

– During the home matches, I sat in a corner at the top of the stands. I had a headset and talked to Patrik on the phone.

He livestreamed the away matches from home and even then kept in touch with the team by phone.

Even though Michael stayed away from persons other than his partner, he was hit in February by covid-19.

– I do not know how, I had not met a man. I had stayed at the far end of the hall and mostly thrown a ball, that was the closest I had been to anyone. But it was just like a cold, that was all.

When Michael and his girlfriend tested themselves, it turned out that only he was affected.

– Then I infected her so she got sick.

Michael is now vaccinated and head coach of the elite league team. Of the six opening matches, Uppsala has won four and lost two and is fifth in a series of eleven teams.

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Last season, Uppsala, as a newcomer, finished eight. Now you aim a little higher.

– We want to be in the top half of the table and be able to challenge in a playoff. We have a complete team with 16 players at a good level. We do not have that security in the game, we can sometimes be great but then you notice that the nervousness comes.

The players are snow white amateurs, this also applies to the brought this British national team players Alex Jenkins and Jermaine Miles.

– The money we have we spend on our organization.

Next weekend, the bottom team RIG Falköping away and Floby at home in Fyrishov are waiting.

– Floby is two places above us with one match more played. If we can win both matches and take six points, we are in a really good position to take us to the Grand Prix in January, says Jestin.

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