Royalla dad of three is living with prostate cancer and working to help make the disease history
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00:00The first year I was diagnosed, I was obviously made aware of the long run, which is part
00:08of Prostate Cancer Awareness Month, September.
00:10I think I was only six weeks post-surgery at that point, so I signed up, I think for
00:1672Ks, which is the standard sign-up.
00:18My wife and I raised some money, which was heaps of fun.
00:21I think I walked most of those Ks that year.
00:24But yeah, each year I've just decided that it is, and especially since we moved out here,
00:29it is just a really good excuse to, I guess, get motivated.
00:34The weather starts to warm up a little bit, spring's magnificent out here.
00:37So not long after I turned 50, my wife encouraged me to have a check-up with my local GP, not
00:42something that I'd done a lot of.
00:45Went in for what I thought was a normal set of bloods, wasn't sick or feeling ill in any
00:49way.
00:50Got called back by my GP a couple of days later to discuss the results, and turned out
00:55he'd, unbeknownst to me, done a PSA test, which tests your prostate health, and had
01:00discovered mine to be abnormally high.
01:02The next couple of weeks, I guess, was a bit of a whirlwind, led to the discovery of a
01:08very aggressive form of prostate cancer.
01:12So it came as a huge shock to myself and the family, obviously.
01:16In sort of a month or so, I'd had a radical prostatectomy to have the prostate removed.
01:21So very tricky to deal with, especially when your head isn't around sort of being ill in
01:27any way, and I presented asymptomatically, so no symptoms whatsoever, which was another
01:33anomaly, I guess.
01:34Fast forward a couple of years, and I suppose a year and a half ago, things started to move
01:42again, which was indicative of the cells being present somewhere else in my body.
01:46It's a situation probably for us now, where we deal with these instances as they appear,
01:54and apply the required treatment, and get on with life.
01:57Yeah, it gives me a great opportunity to do some cool stuff, and some advocacy, and raise
02:02some money for the Prostate Cancer Foundation.
02:04Found a level of comfort in talking about some of the really tricky side effects, particularly
02:10relative to the surgery and some of the treatments, some of the things that men typically don't
02:15like talking about.
02:17So I just thought I could at least become a voice, and got to know the crew at the Prostate
02:22Cancer Foundation really well, and got a really good understanding of some of the incredible
02:26things that they do, and the support that they provide.
02:29So yeah, it's just been a bit of a passion of mine, I guess, to be comfortable enough
02:33to speak out, and to really help other men understand that there is an incredible support
02:38network out there, and then at the same time, do every little bit that I can to help raise
02:42some money for the PCFA, who do some incredible work.