There has been a lot in the media about prostate cancer recently. It’s become the most common diagnosed cancer, overtaking breast cancer. Chris Hoy was on TV before Christmas, Giles Coren in The Times, Rod Stewart, Stephen Fry, Ian McKellen, Andrew Lloyd Webber have all shared their stories of living with prostate cancer. My sponsored walk didn’t make the national news but, hopefully, raised awareness and definitely raised money for research into PC.
A number of friends and aquaintances have been diagnosed recently with PC, often when their doctors were looking for something else, so, when I read this article in The Times I felt I definitely needed to point as many people as possible to it.
It explains the reluctance of the medical profession to introduce blanket testing for PC and also the varies side effects of the various treatments, which sound, in some cases, extremely unpleasant.
I was diagnosed with advanced PC (Gleason 5+4, PSA 562) in 2019. I was catheterised for about 6 weeks and then self catheterised for several months. I had 6 cycles of chemotherapy and have been on hormone therapy for 5 and a half years. My sex drive dissappeared as soon as I went on the hormone therapy, which is intended to block the production of testosterone which the cancer feeds on. I don’t have as much energy as I once did. I am losing muscle tone and getting somewhat rounded, and it has affected my mental health to some degree.
However, I walked 61 miles in January for my sponsored walk; I am enjoying life with my wife and family; I fulfilled my first aims of seeing my little grandson start school and my big grandson graduate from university; and, most of the time, I can forget about the fact that I have PC and live a fairly normal life, enjoying meals out, an occasional drink or three and holidays and days out. PC isn’t nice, but doesn’t need to be the end of the world.
If you are worried, talk to your doctor. With 1 in 8 men getting PC, your doctor should have far more experience dealing with this than you.