I’m not posting this message for sympathy, I’ve had plenty of that, I’m posting this to encourage you, if you’re over 50 (or over 40 if a relative has it) to get regular PSA blood tests for prostate cancer.

I’ve actually been relatively lucky here - my PSA tests in early 2020 showed a slight movement, but because my dad had prostate cancer a few years before, they sent me for an MRI. That showed something suspicious, so I went for a biopsy - that showed low levels of cancer, but slow growth, so was a monitoring job with 6 monthly blood tests and an MRI every 18 months - they told me I wouldn’t really need to start worrying for ten to fifteen years.

Well, that day has been brought forward. My PSA levels jumped 25% in the first six months of this year, so had an MRI which showed significant growth and a very punchy biopsy that told me it had spread throughout the prostate and it was more aggressive - I’d gone from stage one (you couldn’t make it up!) to stage 3 in a very short space of time (prostate cancer is 1-5, or the Gleason scale).

With my age (young for this), it’s recommended I have the poor bugger taken out - I’m young and fit enough to make a full recovery, but things will certainly be a bit dicey and full function could take 6 months to a year. I’m in for the op on the 15th October. They don’t think it’s spread beyond the prostate, so hopefully that is the case when they head in to get it.

Get tested, don’t take no for an answer. My initial diagnosis was pure luck and could easily have found myself in a terrible situation in a years time.