A man with no symptoms was diagnosed with a "silent killer" thanks to watching BBC Breakfast
Prescot man Ted Sayers would usually be in work when the BBC One show was broadcast, until he retired as a lab technician at Liverpool John Moores University six months before. But in February last year he was watching athlete Joe Appiah talk about how a conversation with a friend and hurdling rival saved his life.
When Joe mentioned they play five-a-side football together, Ted's ears pricked up. The 61-year-old told the ECHO: "That's what stuck with me because I play five-a-side. I don't know why that was the thing that stuck with me, but it was. It made me take more note, plus the fact I actually lost my uncle through prostate cancer in the Christmas before that."
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Joe had been diagnosed with prostate cancer after his friend who had it advised him to get to get a PSA test. This blood test checks for levels of prostate specific antigen, which can be raised if there's a problem with your prostate. Joe's levels were more than three times the average for his age, then 50.
Thanks to that test, doctors caught his prostate cancer in time to operate and cure it, so he advised BBC Breakfast viewers to use Prostate Cancer UK's 30-second online risk checker. It affects one in ten people with prostates, and the risk of developing prostate cancer is higher if you're aged 50 or older, Black, overweight or have a father or brother who's had it, according to the NHS.
Ted said: "I went onto the website, answered the three questions, and I was completely aware that I was going to be told that I needed to get a test. At that point, you think it's just a test, so I phoned by GP the very same day. If I had not done it the same day, I'm sure I wouldn't have done it at all, to be honest.
"It's just one of those things where you think, 'I have absolutely no symptoms'. I had no qualms whatsoever. I'm quite fit, I still play football, I do a lot of running, I play squash regularly, I am very fit for my age, so it didn't concern me at all. And it's just a blood test. There's nothing to it unless you're scared of needles."
His PSA levels were only slightly raised, which Ted blamed on running to the appointment. But it was enough to prompt his GP to arranged to have his urine flow checked while Ted kept a toilet diary. Ted said: "It all seemed normal to me."
At hospital Ted had a prostate exam, which was inconclusive, so they sent him for further scans and a biopsy. An Easter trip to the US was fast approaching during those weeks of tests, and Ted worried whether he'd get results before flying away.
They had to cancel it anyway due to his wife's positive Covid-19 test, and then on Good Friday came news. Sitting with a urology nurse in St Helens Hospital, he was "still convinced it was just going to be, 'Yeah, there's nothing wrong, carry on'.
"But no, they said, 'We've found something, you definitely have got something and there are a couple of decisions you need to make because you've got options'. I was honestly shocked."
Growing slowly in the prostate, a walnut-sized gland at the base of the bladder, prostate cancer usually doesn't cause symptoms until it's big enough to put pressure on the tube carrying urine from the bladder out of the body. Caught early, it's treatable, with 100% of people diagnosed at stage one surviving five years or more, according to Cancer Research UK.
But because it can exist with no symptoms for years, many people are diagnosed in the later stage when it's spread beyond the prostate and the five-year survival rate falls to less than half, leading to its nickname, the "silent killer".
There's a North-South divide when it comes to catching prostate cancer in time. In London, 12.5% of people with prostate cancer are diagnosed when it's too late to cure it, rising to 17.1% in the North West, and 35% in Scotland.
Ted's uncle was those for whom diagnosis came to late, finding his prostate cancer when it was inoperable and his treatment options were limited. Ted was given two options. He could get a radical prostatectomy, a robotic-assisted surgery to remove his entire prostate and the cancer with it. Or he could undergo radiotherapy, which leaves a risk of the cancer coming back.
He said: "As a man of 60, I thought I could feasibly have 20 or 30 years, I don't want to live with a possibility of this hanging over me and coming back, so I went for the for the surgery. It's scary because the only time I've ever been to hospital before for myself was when I had a broken leg from playing football about eight years ago. That's the only time I've ever spent in hospital ever."
Going to the Royal Liverpool Hospital for the surgery, Ted still thought there was nothing wrong with him. And he left after just over a day with six small incisions - the biggest is just one inch - thanks to the minimally invasive technique.
Around this time, Ted started volunteering with Prostate Cancer UK, which helped put him in a different headspace. The charity also introduced him to Joe, who he appeared with on BBC Breakfast last summer. Ted said: "Had I not seen his interview, I would have been completely oblivious.
"Even now, 12 months later, I might be completely unaware that there was anything wrong with me, and then it could be untreatable, or I may have been in the same position as my uncle and only had limited options. Joe has at least extended my life in that respect, if not saved it. You just need to get tested."
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