Prostate Scotland sees demand soar after Chris Hoy announced terminal cancer
The charity wants to thank the Olympic cyclist for his 'openness and courage'
Prostate Scotland has said the number of visits to its online webpage has spiked by more than 2,000 percent -after Sir Chris Hoy announced his cancer was terminal.
The charity says the six-time Olympic cycling champion's diagnosis has sparked important conversations about the disease, with many more men now looking for information and support.
The impact of Chris Hoy's openness about his terminal prostate cancer diagnosis has been immediate, according to bosses.
In one week alone, active users viewing the website increased by 2,556%, while users viewing the symptom checker increased by 2,600% and new people visiting the website increased by 745% overall.
'We want to say thank you to him'
The charity has recently welcomed a new CEO, Alison Wright, who hopes to build on the momentum Chris Hoy has created.
She said: "We just want to say a huge big thank you to him because of his openness and him sharing his experience has enabled us to reach so many more people and so many more men.
"His own experience in the last few weeks that he's shared does mean that we've seen a huge increase of people coming to our website to get information.
"What we're seeing from Chris Hoy's announcement is basically that more men are are hearing and are going and searching out for information about prostate cancer. And that can only be a good thing.
!Prostate cancer is one of those cancers. If it's caught early enough, it is curable in most cases and that is that is really good news.
"But the problem is when men don't understand the symptoms, they don't have information, they can't go to their GP and ask for it because they really don't know what they're asking about.
"So what we hope from this announcement through Chris Hoy is that more men will understand what the symptoms are."
'Still have work to do'
Consultant Urological Surgeon, Alan McNeill, said: “We know men don’t always seek out mainstream health support and can ignore symptoms, and with no national screening programme for prostate cancer currently in place, that’s why it’s crucial we get the message out to more men: “go to your GP and request a prostate-specific antigen (PSA) test from the age of 50.”
“For those with "high risk of prostate cancer”, men with a family history of the disease and Afro-Caribbean men, we recommend they get checked earlier.
"Given that early-stage prostate cancer often doesn't show any symptoms, Afro-Caribbean men should get tested at 45, and those with a family history should have the check a decade earlier than the age their relative was when diagnosed.
“Nearly every week as consultants, my colleagues and I, encounter men in their 50s or early 60s suffering from advanced prostate cancer. After 18 years of raising awareness with Prostate Scotland, it’s obvious we still have work to do."