“IT WAS LIKE a bullet out of the blue,” said Clare man Damian Fox as he recalled the moment he was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2018.
He had recently turned 50, and after hearing of friends from the GAA community he was involved with being diagnosed with the disease, he decided he would get checked, assuming no symptoms of cancer meant he would get the all clear.
“I’m a referee and I would always have been very fit, a very fit guy. I would always have to have umpires going to matches with me, and two of the umpires, mid-70s at the time, had gone through the experience of prostate cancer and I had been with them and went through the journey with them,” he explained to TheJournal.ie.
“That brought it to my attention and I said on my 50th birthday I would go even though I thought I was a bit young… I had convinced myself that this was only a formality and I was expecting to be told you’re all clear, go on home, off you go.”
When the results of his blood tests came back clear in January 2017, he was relieved, but while attending hospital nine months later in October, another blood test raised concerns and by January 2018, he received a diagnosis.
“My wife Charlotte had said she’d come with me for the results and I said sure there’s no need, it’s just a formality but it’s a good thing she came with me… the three options were radiation, another form of radiation or else remove the prostate,” Fox said.
“When I came down the stairs from the office, believe me, when you get that word and you think how does it affect you, well I came out of that office, and I’d be a strong enough man, I just got into the car and I burst out crying.
“And the wife didn’t know what to say, it probably shook her to the core as well.
We definitely went in thinking this is a formality and then all of a sudden you’re told the word ‘cancer’ and not knowing then that the prostate cancer was probably the most curable cancer you can get.
“I wouldn’t have even known or been up-to-date with this stuff at that stage, I wouldn’t have even known what the function of the prostate was, which most men wouldn’t.”
A series of biopsies in the months following that diagnosis would reveal that the cancer had become aggressive, prompting the need for immediate intervention, and after deliberating over what treatment would best suit him and his family, the father-of-two opted to have the prostate removed and eliminate any further risk.
Since having surgery and removing the cancer, the 52-year-old has made a full recovery and with regular checkups with his consultant every six months, he has returned to work as a postman with An Post.
Charity organisations including the Marie Keating Foundation are running a month-long campaign throughout September to raise awareness around prostate cancer, the treatments available following a diagnosis and outcomes when the cancer is caught early.
Prostate cancer is the second most common cancer in men in Ireland and one in every eight men will receive a diagnosis in their lifetime.
Men aged 50 and over, and men aged 45 and over with a history of prostate cancer in their family, are encouraged to get regular prostate checks – usually through a blood test to indicate their PSA levels but sometimes through a physical examination.
“Considering that prostate cancer is the most common cancer amongst men in Ireland, excluding non-melanoma skin cancer, prostate health needs to be something men are open to discussing,” Helen Forristal, Director of Nursing at the Marie Keating Foundation said.
“As survival rates for prostate cancer are so high when treated early, we are encouraging all men to get to know the signs and symptoms and not to be afraid to seek help if they notice changes in their bodies.”
There is a 93% survival rate for prostate cancer when it is caught early.
Stigma
Fox has opened up about his experience of prostate cancer with friends and family since receiving the all clear in a bid to encourage more men to get checked and to help tackle the stigma associated with the disease.
“Men are men, and they hate going to the doctor,” he said. “They hate going to get a checkup and all I’ll say is if I didn’t get the checkup when I did, I’d be looking at a completely different scenario.
“Men say ‘sure I’m only young, I’m only mid-50s, I couldn’t have prostate cancer’ but I’ve met people as young as 4o who were diagnosed.
“[The doctors] said to me that cancer cells will live in everybody’s body but it’s just when they decide to raise their head, and the consultant said some people will die from prostate cancer and never even know they had it.
The doctor said to me that people can live with prostate cancer and just get checked every six months, they have prostate cancer but it never progresses past a certain level.
“And if you catch prostate cancer in time, it’s very, very manageable and people don’t even know you have it.”
This month is Blue September where campaigns aim to highlight the risk of cancer among men. Organisations including the HSE and the Marie Keating Foundation, as well as GP services, have information and resources available on prostate and other cancers.
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