"When you sit there with a consultant who says: 'I'm afraid you've got cancer,' it's just like everybody says, like a bomb going off in your face. You don't hear anything else for the rest of the conversation, and think: 'It can't be, something must be wrong, they must have missed something.'"
Ever since his father was diagnosed with prostate cancer, Brian Harris, from Mitchel Troy, near Monmouth, knew to look out for the signs and make sure he was tested regularly. He'd been going to his GP every year or two for a blood test to check his antigen levels, and had regularly been told everything was fine. But when he was 61 he realised he'd missed the tests for the last few years.
He organised another blood test and called the surgery to check whether he needed to see a doctor about the results. It was a 'yes', for the first time.
