A simple blood test that saved my life . . .
THANKS to the Daily Mail’s campaign to make men more aware about prostate cancer, my life has been saved. I read an article in Good Health that said if there was prostate cancer in your family, you were more likely to contract the disease. This report led me to ask my doctor, who was carrying out a routine blood test, to check my prostate specific antigen (PSA) levels. I was called back and a biopsy revealed the aggressive form of the disease, which was a shock. At the time I received the results, I read another article in Good Health about a new way of operating on the cancer that greatly reduces the risk of incontinence. I travelled to London, where Professor Christopher Eden, the consultant mentioned in the article, carried out a radical prostatectomy. Subsequent test results indicate the operation was a success. I am recommending PSA tests to all my friends. If I hadn’t read the article, things could have turned out far worse.
ROGER BUMBY, Bingley, W. Yorks. MEN are not dying of embarrassment (Mail). They are dying because there is no national screening programme for prostate cancer. The simple PSA blood test has saved many men’s lives. The research budget for prostate cancer is only half as much as that for breast cancer — how can this be justified?
G. LOCKE, Kingswinford, W. Mids.