Earlier test may have saved my life, says Tony Horrible

TONY COLLIER is one of about 8,500 men in England told every year that their prostate cancer is incurable because it is too advanced.

After visiting his GP two years ago with groin pain, he was horrified when a urologist said he may have had the disease for a decade.

It had spread throughout much of his skeleton, causing stress fractures in his weakened bones.

Tony, 62, left, with grandson Finn, said: “They told me I might only have two years to live. It was very shocking.

“To be told you have cancer is devastating but when I found out it was incurable, it was absolutely indescribable.

“You go to that horrible dark place.

“At the time my grandson Ethan was aged four.

“The reality was that I was never going to see him become a teenager. All those dark thoughts go through your mind.”

Tony lives in Altrincham, Manchester, with wife Tracey, who he calls the “family rock”. He has semi- retired from his job in accounting to spend more time with his family.

Tony, who is on hormone therapy to keep his cancer stable, takes the drug abiraterone to stop his body producing testosterone. This prevents prostate cancer cells from growing.

A keen runner, Tony stays fit and still goes out three or four times a week. But he says he has struggled with the impact of cancer.

He says: “Thankfully treatments are improving and that’s what’s keeping me alive. But there’s not one aspect of my life that hasn’t been impacted. I’ve been totally emasculated as a man and as an athlete.”

Tony has two grandchildren, now aged six and 18 months. He wants a screening programme to be established as quickly as possible to reduce the number of men diagnosed too late.

He said: “We are so desperate for a screening test that is robust. Early diagnosis means curative treatment.

“If I had had that every year from age 50, I would have been diagnosed at a point where I could have been cured, instead of when it was too late.

“The big concern is that the risk for my son and grandsons is two and a half times greater because of my diagnosis.

“They need to be screened at an earlier age.”