Blue September: get it checked
Local Support Coordinators for the Prostate Cancer Foundation in Katikati Stuart Mackenzie and Rod Calver urge all men over 50 to get their prostate checkup annually. If there is a history of prostate cancer in the family, then testing should begin at least by the age of 40. Rod knows of someone whose father had died of prostate cancer and was diagnosed with it at the age of 37. “So it’s not just an ‘old man’s disease,’” says Rod.
Men who have an early diagnosis are much more likely to have any cancer confined inside the prostate, where it can be treated or removed before any spread outside the prostate has occurred. If men are concerned about having their rectums digitally prodded, then Rod believes it’s best just to have regular blood tests, and any rapid rise in their PSA levels should mean a visit to a urologist who is skilled in digital rectal examinations and the follow-up procedures required.
Each year about 4,000 men are diagnosed with prostate cancer, and there are about 42,000 men living with the disease. Around 600 men will die of prostate cancer annually. Early diagnosis reduces this death rate.
Blue September is the major fundraiser and awareness month for the Prostate Cancer Foundation, which advocates for better health outcomes today and for future generations. Prostate cancer is the most diagnosed cancer in NZ, but if it is caught early, it is also treatable. It’s extremely frustrating, and it should be an issue of national concern, that despite all the evidence pointing to early detection and appropriate treatment making the difference between life and death, methods of detecting the disease, treatments and medicines for prostate cancer patients that are considered standard and funded in other countries are severely limited here, or even non-existent outside of the main centres. Unfortunately, outcomes for Māori and men living away from the main centres are worse than the general population.
Individuals and businesses are urged to “Have a Blue Do to Help a Mate Through.”
For more information on Blue Do’s, please contact: Paul Hayes, Marketing and Fundraising Manager, on 0272 937 466 or paul@prostate.org.nz
Local Support Coordinators Rod Calver: 0275 909 710 and Stuart Mackenzie: 0277 748 933 will also provide assistance in running a Blue Do or to talk with anyone about prostate cancer.