A dad’s manhood ended up looking like “Frankenstein’s monster’s face” after surgery to fight penile cancer, after fearing he had caught an STI.
James Garfield first noticed a small red pimple on the shaft of his penis which developed into a penny-sized patch of itchy, oozing skin in April 2019.
Fearing he had picked up an infection from a toilet seat he went to a sexual health clinic who revealed he had cancer.
Despite the diagnoses, the 48-year-old revealed he was relieved it was not an STI.
He underwent a circumcision in March 2020 to remove the growth and was given chemo cream.
However, a second biopsy in January 2023 revealed James had penile intraepithelial neoplasia (PeIN) and he underwent a glansectomy in April.
Six weeks on from his operation James has jokingly likened his penis to a monster.
James, from Weston-super-Mare, Somerset, said: "When I first looked at it I went 'oh dear', it looked like Frankenstein's [monster’s] face
"Six weeks on it's healed, it's like a miracle, when the doctor looked at it and said 'I'm 90% certain that's cancerous', it was such a relief because it wasn't an STI.
"Siobhan was upset when I got my diagnosis, while I was quite blase about it.
"There was no feeling of dread. Death doesn't frighten me, when I'm dead I'm dead."
“After about six months of it getting larger and larger I thought 'I need to sort this out'.
"It got to the size of my thumbnail, about the size of a 1p piece. It was constantly angry, itchy and weeping.
"I thought it was an STI so I spent time researching 'how have I caught this off a toilet seat?' because this isn't something I've picked up the traditional way, I'm committed to my wife.
"I was fast-tracked [to hospital] because it's a rare cancer and I'm under 50.
"I was told that it was a quick-moving cancer but was operable.
The dad-of-four has shared his ordeal in order to encourage men to regularly check themselves and get anything unusual investigated by a doctor.
James underwent his first surgery at Southmead Hospital in Bristol in March 2020 and was given chemo cream to apply post-op.
James said: "I had my operation seven days before the NHS shut down for covid.
"That was a lucky break, I could have gone six months without seeing anybody.
"I had to wait for where they'd done the biopsy to heal and then apply this chemo cream.
"I managed to burn everything - it got onto my scrotum, my inner thighs and groin area.
"Then we move forward to the back end of last year and I go and see the doctor again about discolouration on my glans.
"I was feeling really down, really low of energy and I had this pain in my hip and groin area.
"I had this nagging thought in my head 'has something not been picked up on? Am I going to die of cancer now?'.
Now James is sharing his diagnosis to encourage blokes to regularly check themselves and get anything unusual checked out.
James said: "As soon as you get past what it is [penis cancer] and what it means to a man - virility and stuff like that - it's just a body part.
"The healthcare I've been given has been absolutely tremendous and speedy.
"My advice to blokes is if you find something that you don't think is right, get it checked out.
"I was very lucky that the guy that I saw had seen this before [and knew what it was].
"If you're not happy with what you've been told, get it checked out again."
