A 50-year-old man who felt pain in his back at the gym went to the doctor and ended up thinking he was going to die. Alfred Fagan asked the doctor for a blood test while he was getting his back pain checked - having recently seen a report on TV.
That decision may have saved his life - as the result came back positive for prostate cancer, but the diagnosis at first filled Alfred with fear.
He said: “When I heard I had cancer, I thought I was going to die." Alfred had asked for the test while getting his back checked after seeing something on TV about black men being at higher risk of prostate cancer.
He said: "Before I was diagnosed, I was really fit and healthy - cancer was the last thing on my mind. I actually only went to the doctor in the first place because I’d hurt my back at the gym.
“I’d recently seen a piece on TV about black men being at higher risk for prostate cancer, so I casually mentioned it to my GP while I was there. Because of my age and ethnicity, I was given a blood test and was eventually diagnosed with prostate cancer."
It's now 10 years since his diagnosis and Mr Fagan is cancer free. But he often wonders what the outcome would have been had he not hurt his back, and then asked his doctor for that blood test, reports BirminghamLive.
Prostate cancer often has no symptoms in its early stages. Health leaders are urging more men to get tested.
Those who are over 50, black or have a family history of the illness, are likely to be more at risk. Mr Fagan said: "When I heard I had cancer, I thought I was going to die. What I know now is how lucky I was that I caught it early, because I got treated and now 10 years on, I’m still cancer-free.
“These days I spend a lot of time speaking to men about prostate cancer, which means I know first-hand how widespread these myths are – I had one friend who refused to believe me when I told him one in four black men get prostate cancer – and now he has it himself.
"The main message I try to get across is that you just can’t wait for symptoms, because if I had, I don’t know if I’d have been diagnosed in time.”
Chiara De Biase, director of support and influencing at Prostate Cancer UK, said: “Men’s health can be a minefield. Everyone has gaps in their knowledge and every one of us probably believes something that just isn’t true.
“But what’s really worrying is that this misinformation could stop a man from getting the early diagnosis that could save his life. It’s especially concerning how many men believe they’ll see signs of early stage prostate cancer and would avoid speaking to their GP if they didn’t have symptoms, when we know that prostate cancer doesn’t usually have any symptoms at all until it’s already spread and become incurable."
