FINGER OUT

Call as men risk their lives

Ten days later, John’s GP called to break the news that there was a chance he had cancer.

He was referred to a consultant urologist who repeated the digital rectal examination and referred him for MRI, full body and bone scans and a biopsy.

A month later, John and wife Cathy returned to the consultant who delivered the diagnosis they had dreaded: prostate cancer.

He said: “When all the results came back, I do not remember going from his office. I remember nothing until I was in the car park – I felt absolutely numb.

“Then I went into ‘why me?’ mode. When I was a kid, if anyone said ‘cancer,’ you never saw them again. It was a death sentence.

“It had gone slightly out of the prostate sack and into the lymph glands. In those days you couldn’t have an operation and that cut down my options for treatment.”

John was referred to a team led by oncologist Dr Dodds and said: “He put me on hormone treatment to shrink the tumour and kill the testosterone feeding it.”

With an initial PSA test level of 44, John had 12 weekly injections of hormone therapy Zoladex. When it was revealed that his PSA had dropped to 4.6, the team abandoned a plan to administer it for two years before starting radiotherapy, with his consultant reassuring him: “I think we can cure this.”

On Boxing Day 2006, John began 37 treatments of radiotherapy over seven weeks at the Beatson in Glasgow, where he was driven every weekday by volunteers from Lanarkshire Cancer Care Trust.

“The radiotherapy didn’t hurt or make me feel ill. Other than the terrible tiredness was the wondering at the back of your mind if it was going to work.”

His large bowel was damaged during the radiotherapy and had to be removed five years later.

With fellow survivor Neil Armstrong, John runs the Maggie’s prostate cancer support group, meeting from 10am to noon on the third Thursday of each month.

They see an increasing number of younger men in their 40s and 50s coming through the doors of t the Airdrie centre to s share experiences, gain information or simply get things off their chest.

Alison Strang, a cancer support specialist at the Monklands Maggie’s, told the Advertiser: “The men talk about anything at all to d do with health and w wellbeing.

“They’ll discuss treatments, how to talk to medical staff; and invite in specialists like urology nurses and cancer support experts to talk about side effects and treatments, and to a ask questions.

“Our benefits adviser helps them apply and make sure they’re accessing e everything they’re entitled to; and the gents will discuss things they’ve found in the media and offer general peer support, around things like making decisions for treatment and what side-effects are like to live with.

“Gents come along at any point, from just being diagnosed to those who are past treatment; they can share their experiences and get reassurance.

“The group has been running for nine years, almost the whole time Maggie’s has been in Lanarkshire, and it’s very well attended – and it certainly dispels the myth that west of Scotland men don’t talk.”

John said: “I’d advise anybody diagnosed with prostate cancer not to keep it from their family. Tell everybody – it affects all the family, you’ll need help from them being taken for treatments.

“It can be hereditary; any sons in the family could be in line for it. When I found out, I emailed all my male cousins and told them to get checked.

“When you’re going for appointments, always take someone with you because you don’t take a lot in. I didn’t know what I needed to ask, so it’s a good idea to make a few notes before you go.”

John, who will be urging his 14-year-old grandson to be prostate-aware in adulthood, has a simple message – put your stubborn male pride aside and take the test.

He said: “Because of the embarrassing test, men will not go and be seen. It is actually very silly.

“What I’d say to them is: it will not go away. Okay, you might be lucky and it might take a long time to develop. There are some schools of thought that say that if you are going to get cancer, that is the best one to get because it is not generally aggressive. But we are all different. The secret is to go and get tested.”

For more information on the Lanarkshire support group, email n.s.armstrong@blueyonder.co.uk, or simply drop in to the Airdrie centre for a chat.

I felt absolutely numb. I went into ‘why me?’ mode - John Morgan