Chair of Waveney support group urges men over 50 to get themselves checked for prostate cancer
It comes as Prostate Cancer UK launches their awareness campaign today
The chair of a support group in Waveney is urging all men in their 50s to get themselves checked for prostate cancer.
It comes as Prostate Cancer UK today launches their awareness campaign about the most common cancer in men.
According to their research:
-Almost half (44%) of men do not know where their prostate is and 74% aren’t sure what it does.
-Only a third (35%) of men realise that early-stage prostate cancer often has no symptoms and over half (53%) think they'll be invited for testing if they're at higher risk – they won’t.
-60% of men would be concerned about having a rectal exam. In reality, a blood test is the best first step to check for prostate cancer.
-Only 54% of men realise prostate cancer is the most common cancer in men, despite it affecting 1 in 8 men in the UK
"A good indication as to whether there's something wrong"
John Ladd, leads Norfolk and Waveney's Prostate Cancer support group.
He told us what friends and family can do, to help somebody who's worried:
"Encourage them to go to the doctors and to ask for a PSA Prostate-specific antigen test, if it isn't offered. It may come back negative which reassures people that they haven't got it. I think anybody over 50 years old should have a PSA test.
"PSA testing isn't wholly reliable, but it is a good indication as to whether there's something wrong. I think it's a question of monitoring it over a period of time. It may be the case that it's so high that the hospital might want to do a biopsy."
"In 2016 I was diagnosed with prostate cancer"
He knows from personal experience that it can affect any man:
"As an example myself, I had no symptoms. In 2016 I was diagnosed with prostate cancer. But it was mainly because my doctor was quite proactive. When I retired from teaching she said I'll do a 'Well Man' check on you and because she knew my father had died from the cancer she added a PSA to that."
"We are more aware of it now. Certainly in our support group people are much more willing to discuss their symptoms and the side-effects from them. That's one of the purposes of our support groups to show that men aren't on their own and there's other people there with the same problems."