Every Liverpool fan will have their own tales of their journey to Saturday's Champions League final but none will be more dramatic than Jose Enrique's.
Sat in his Valencia home, with his Pomeranian dog Simba bouncing playfully around the sofa, the former Liverpool tells the story.
'The doctor sat down with me and said: 'Don't be frightened by the word I am going to say, because everyone thinks, when you say it, it means that you have it all over your body and you are going to die',' he says, recalling events last May when he went to hospital after a severe headache that had him seeing double.
Jose Enrique poses in a Liverpool shirt as he speaks about overcoming a rare form of cancer
The former left-back required brain surgery and Proton therapy but is now clear of the cancer
Enrique undergoing Proton therapy in Paris to remove any remaining cancerous cells
The word he's referring to is still one he prefers not to utter, least not in full. 'Don't worry, it's canc...' he goes on recalling the doctor's words but stopping short before the final syllable.
'It's malignant but localised and unlikely to spread. Stay calm, you will have an operation'.'
It was a one-in-a-million rare cancer that needed brain surgery and after consulting medical friends in football he located a top neurosurgeon, Dr Juan Antonio Simal, in Valencia, and a month later he was having the eight-hour operation with the tumour reached via the nasal passages.
'When they take it out you don't know if you are going to be the same as before. That frightened me. I'm there aged 32 years and pfffff! What if I end up without a nose or an eye?'
He says he never would have coped without his Bolton-born partner Amy. 'She helped me so much because she was so positive.'
The battle wasn't over after surgery, either. He needed the extremely accurate but highly expensive Proton Therapy in Paris to eliminate the possibility of any lingering cancerous cells. He has since been given the all-clear.
Enrique wearing the captain's armband for Jurgen Klopp's Liverpool before he left the club
The Spanish left-back played 99 times for Liverpool during his five seasons with the club
He describes being masked and strapped to the bed so it's impossible for the head to move as the €130million (£115m) machine directs its radiotherapy beam.
'It's an oppressive stifling sensation. And it's a big machine. I would try not to look at it as I entered the room. You don't feel anything at the time but they're radiating your head after all and there are side-effects - my right ear blocked and I couldn't hear properly for a couple of months.'
It was while in Paris having that radiation treatment that he visited Jurgen Klopp and the Liverpool players ahead of their group game with PSG last November.
'I was there for the training session and I went to see them in the hotel,' he recalls. 'They were great with me, Kenny Dalglish, Klopp and even players I don't know, [Virgil] Van Dijk and [Andy] Robertson, came to say hello.'
He also watched the semi-final first-leg against Barcelona up in the gods of the Camp Nou with the rest of the Liverpool fans.
And to complete the journey he will be at the Metropolitano stadium to see if they can lift the trophy this weekend.
He will then fly to Hong Kong for a Liverpool Legends match - his first game since he was told he was ill. Asked if he'll be allowed to head the ball in next month's Legends game he laughs, his sense of humour intact.
'The doctor has told me it's okay but if I can avoid it I will. I avoided it when possible as a player because I was terrible at heading so I'm not going to change now.'
Enrique with his wife Amy, who has remained rock solid during his cancer treatment
He is looking forward to watching Liverpool play Tottenham in the Champions League final
There is a strong bond with Liverpool. 'At [previous club] Newcastle they also treat me really well, but by the time I went to
