"My friend's cancer diagnosis saved my life"

SWNS

A man said his friend's prostate cancer diagnosis saved his life - after he got checked out and discovered he had it too.  Rupert Crowfoot, 57, from Berkshire, UK discovered he had the disease on December 27, 2023, after speaking to a friend about his prostate cancer diagnosis.  He underwent a successful operation to remove his prostate in February 2024.

Transcript

00:00Hi, my name's Rupert. On the 27th of December last year I was diagnosed with prostate cancer

00:06and a few weeks ago I underwent a radical prostatectomy which is an operation basically

00:11to remove your prostate and hopefully get rid of that cancer. Blokes aren't particularly good

00:15about talking about some of this stuff. There are some unpleasant side effects or can be in terms

00:20of urinary incontinence, erectile dysfunction. I think it gets talked about less and generally

00:24we're just not good about talking about our health or even getting it sorted out

00:28and I'm grateful that I caught mine just in time. The reason I originally went to have it tested

00:35was I've got a brother who's had the same operation a few years ago and if I'm honest

00:38I should have had it done four years ago now when he had his removed and I didn't.

00:43I had some contradictory messages around the PSA test and how reliable it was.

00:48Anyway, I had a good friend who's been living in Australia who

00:53also had it done. I didn't realise that until it was shortly before Christmas

00:58and when he shared that with me that made me think gosh I really ought to go and get this done.

01:02I'd also just been feeling a little bit off my normal pace in terms of energy levels

01:06and so I originally actually wanted to get my bloods tested and one of the GPs said you know

01:14have you had your PSA tested? I said no but I should have it done and I need to have it done

01:18and the bottom line was my bloods were fine but my PSA wasn't. It was a score of 20 and you want

01:23to be in the kind of 2-3-4 range I understand for a PSA test though I'm told it does vary person

01:28to person. So mine was clearly quite high, he was very good, rang me back the next day and said

01:34listen you know you need to go and get this sorted out and checked and so off I went and

01:40that involved an MRI scan, consultation and I was very fortunate when I went in

01:47on the back of the MRI scan and the consultation they actually said we could do a one-stop clinic

01:52today so they gave me a biopsy that same day and sure enough a few weeks later got the news that

02:00yeah it was prostate cancer and it looked like it was advanced enough that the only real option

02:05for me was to have it removed. It's the biggest cancer killer of men in the UK. I think a simple

02:13blood test is an easy thing to do to stay on top of it. I think the advice is if you're black you

02:19want to be going when you're 45, everybody else when you hit 50 seems to be the age you want to

02:26go and get that tested unless you've got a reason or some family history to get it tested slightly

02:30earlier. I do have heard of some people since who've in their 40s have gone and had it tested

02:34because of family history and are going to continue to do you probably want to have it that PSA test

02:39done every few years just to keep a baseline on it because I certainly know of at least one friend

02:45who was having it regularly as part of a regular kind of check up every year and his was fine for

02:50a long time and then suddenly started to creep up so worth keeping an eye on. Really good survival

02:56rate if it's caught early, pretty lousy survival rates if it's not caught early like a lot of

03:02cancers it tends to get into the lymph nodes and into the bones and when it gets in there

03:08then it's not good news so the key message is get it done, get it sorted early and you've got

03:17a really good chance of a good survival rate and a good quality of life. If your partner is at risk

03:24or hasn't been and had a test then I would urge you to be both persistent and insistent because

03:31again I think blokes aren't terribly good about managing their health always and or wanting to

03:36talk about these things so I think you'll need to keep chipping away if you're a partner of somebody

03:39you think ought to go and have that simple PSA blood test.

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