Cancer shock drives battler’s mission
A FIGHT against a potentially deadly disease has inspired a North Queensland man to educate others about the symptoms.
Bryan Hortin did not think he had prostate cancer when he started experiencing recurring back and testicular pain in his early 40s.
Because of his age, he did not associate the pain as a potential cancer symptom.
After two years of being prescribed treatments for an “infection”, Mr Hortin saw a doctor in Townsville who looked for the cause of his pain.
“That was when I did the prostate specific antigen (PSA) blood test, and my levels came back quite high, so I was referred to a specialist for more tests,” Mr Hortin said.
“By the time I had my confirmation of diagnosis it had been nearly two years since I first started showing symptoms and the cancer was metastatic – meaning it had spread to other parts of my body.”
He said teaching younger men about the symptoms of prostate cancer was vital to catch the disease early.
“Prostate cancer is a disease that’s associated with getting older, so it can be easy to see the symptoms in iso
lation and miss the signs,” Mr Hortin said.
“I’ve been letting a lot of my friends know what they should be looking out for and when they should talk to the
doctor, because the earlier it’s caught the better,
“It’s important that they aren’t dismissive of the symptoms because they are younger, if something isn’t quite right, talk to a doctor about getting some tests done.”
Mr Hortin said he felt “immense” support from nurses at Townsville University Hospital during his almost two years of treatment.
“I’m on some tablets for my treatment now, and the side effects have been particularly bad,” he said.
”But I think I’m finally settling down a bit.
“Time will tell, but my results are getting better and I feel like I’m improving.”
Townsville HHS clinical director of medical oncology Dr Abhishek Joshi said most people with prostate cancer could be treated easily.
“Prostate cancer is the most common cancer in men, especially those who are older,” Dr Joshi said
“Thankfully, most times this cancer is not very aggressive and can be treated and managed quite easily with a 75 to 80 per cent chance of survival even in advanced stages.
“The most important thing is that men aren’t afraid to come forward and talk to their doctors if they have any symptoms.
“The most common symptom is problems with the urine flow such as dribbling, frequency and the urgency.”