The Dark Knight star Colin McFarlane has revealed that he has been diagnosed with prostate cancer.
The 61-year-old actor – also known for his roles in BBC science fiction series Doctor Who and historical time travel show Outlander as well as being the voice of The Cube on the game show – said he discovered his condition nine months on from his brother’s own prostate cancer diagnosis.
McFarlane said they both discovered their illness thanks to a prostate-specific antigen (PSA) test, which can be given to men without symptoms after a consultation with a doctor.
He said after a fellow actor, who was being treated for prostate cancer 17 years ago, told him about the disease’s prevalence among black men, he has been regularly tested.
McFarlane said: “I was already aware of the risk to me, so had been having annual and then six-monthly regular PSA blood tests with my GP.
“Thankfully, just over a year ago, I had told my brother to get a PSA blood test otherwise he wouldn’t have been diagnosed, because he had no symptoms.”
He added that he is “one of the lucky ones” as he has been “able to catch this very early”.
McFarlane added: “So, although I have been diagnosed with prostate cancer, I do not require any treatment.
“I am being regularly monitored with PSA blood tests every three months and an MRI (or magnetic resonance imaging scan) once a year.”
The diagnosis on December 20 also coincided with his mother Gwendolyn’s birthday. She died earlier this year at the age of 94.
McFarlane also said: “As it’s a very slow-moving cancer I am in the best possible position to ascertain what treatment I would need in the future if that were ever deemed necessary, and currently that scenario is a long way off.
“It’s men who take no action and don’t know anything about their prostate health that are at the greatest risk.”
McFarlane said this is why he is backing Prostate Cancer UK’s latest campaign to encourage men over 50 and black men like him over 45 to get a PSA test.
According to the charity, black men are at double the risk of getting the disease as one in four will get it in their lifetime compared to the rate being one in eight among other men.
McFarlane added: “Too many men black men are dying from prostate cancer. They need to know that a simple blood test could save their life.”
Born in Hackney, London, to Jamaican parents – who arrived in the UK in the mid-1950s as part of the Windrush generation – McFarlane graduated from Loughborough University in 1983 after studying drama.
He has since gone on to appear as Gotham City police commissioner Gillian B Loeb in the Christopher Nolan-direct Batman Begins and The Dark Knight alongside Christian Bale and Sir Michael Caine.
McFarlane, who has also starred in comedy shows such as The Fast Show and Toast Of Tinseltown alongside dramas like Death In Paradise and Industry, has also leant his voice to the children’s cartoons Peppa Pig, Thomas & Friends, Fireman Sam and Supertato.
As a stage actor, which has seen him share the boards with Tom Hardy, Michael Sheen, and Sir Lenny Henry, he won a Time Out award as best actor for the Nigerian play Two Horsemen.
McFarlane said: “I always wanted to change the dialogue with not just black men, but black people.
“We can achieve great things, do the top things. So, playing doctors and lawyers and not just drug dealers and pimps like the old days. I wanted to break that stereotype.”
Prostate Cancer UK encourages black men to find out more about their risk of the disease at prostatecanceruk.org/riskcheck.
