World Cancer Day: "I don't want to be defined by my diagnosis"

He's not a smoker, has always been into keeping fit and there's no massive history in his family. David who is a blogger decided to write about his journey from day one. He told us: "From memory, the first entry was; 'You know it has to be somebody, so why not me?' And I just did it in a very, very open way. I used lots of humour in it and you know, sort of graphic descriptions of what was happening to me. I did it because I wanted to do something cathartic to help me deal with what I was going through. I mean I'm fairly in touch with my emotions anyway, but I wanted something that would help me do that."

You can listen to full interview by clicking Audio Boom link in tweet below.

David also hoped his blog would help others going through this journey saying: "British, middle aged men are not very good at talking about health issues, particularly issues that involve putting your legs in the air in front of a room of strangers. You know we wander around all the time with jeans on or crossing our legs when we sit down. All of a sudden the veil is pulled away and your insecurities. I thought if I can just help one other bloke come to terms with this - or one other person who's going through it, who isn't necessarily as equipped as I am to actually deal with that sort of trauma, then it'll be worth doing."

The reaction to his blog surprised him - it enabled people to open up about their experiences and fears. Some family and friends might find it hard to talk about cancer but David wanted to change that and give loved ones the opportunity to discuss his diagnosis freely.

He said: "I've had a friend recently who is a guy who used to live in my road who's since moved to another area of Wales and he's been diagnosed with prostate cancer and he got in touch with me because he'd read my blog and he'd seen me being very open about it. He wanted to talk about what he was about to go through as well. That's just one person that I mentioned - that makes it all worthwhile to me.

"It was done largely from a selfish point of view because it did help me to actually deal with what I was going through myself. But I have had good feedback from other people, so I'm just really glad that I was able to actually put it into words and get it out there."

David splits his time between being a documentary photographer and working for the NHS. When Cancer Research Wales saw his blog and his photography in the press they got in touch and asked if he would do a collaboration. Initially he was going to tell his side of the story but following talks they decided to create something much bigger. They have launched a photographic project looking at people, who like David, don't want to be 'defined by their diagnosis.'

He told us: "I'm in a really lucky position in that I'm able to communicate that and I'm able to take the photographs because, as a trained photographer, I can do that. I was also named Documentary Photographer of the Year recently by the Royal Photographic Society - so that's kind of added currency to the project as well. It's very easy for me with this sort of collaboration with CRW to actually go out there and get this work into the process. To get it to people who actually might feel empowered by becoming involved in it as well."