A surgeon has recalled his experience of being diagnosed with incurable prostate cancer after complaining of a painful foot.
Gareth Jones was diagnosed with the disease in June 2021 and has faced a struggle to maintain his physical and mental health as he receives palliative care.
The 55-year-old urologist was into extreme fitness events prior to his diagnosis and spent many years taking part in Iron Man challenges.
He told Glasgow Live: "Through lockdown, I did lots of virtual events and my last was the virtual Manchester marathon. I was a reasonable runner.
"I first noticed my foot was sore, and although that wasn't a new thing and I've been injured before, it wasn't going away.
"In early 2021, I jumped off my bike because someone walked in front of me and twisted my back - things that have happened before but I wasn't getting through it this time. My left leg also wasn't working properly and I was tripping a lot.
"I was going home from work one day and it took me twice the time and I had abdominal pain. I knew something was wrong."
Gareth initially went to his GP for blood tests before learning of his diagnosis while on call at work.
"I saw my GP at the beginning of June and we did blood tests," he said. "That Friday, I was on call at work for the next week, so I was going round the ward.
"At lunchtime I went to see my colleague and saw a field of red exclamation marks. It showed I had prostate cancer. She went to the diagnostic screen, and confirmed it. I then had to have a CT scan done that day, confirming that my spine and pelvis were full of cancer as well.
"On Monday I was in hospital for MRI scans, which was 90 minutes in the tube. Then I got the prostate biopsy and they gave me the first treatment, which was an injection to stop hormones getting produced.
"Because of my leg and the volume of cancer in back and hip they put me straight on radiotherapy. So I went to the Beatson the next week and got the scans to plan radiotherapy which would be happening five days a week.
"A few weeks later I saw the oncology doctor who decided it was best in addition to radiotherapy and injections that I go on some other pills to completely clear my body of any male hormone. Everything happened very quickly."
Gareth described the experience of being diagnosed as like being "hit by a bus", saying he initially thought he would be dead within a year.
He said: "That day, it was really like being hit by a bus. I hadn’t dealt with men with prostate cancer beyond initial diagnosis in 20 years so all my knowledge was out of date.
"I thought with my blood tests I would be dead within a year, so that was not the best few months of my life. Then I started reading up on it and found out it maybe wasn’t as grim as I'd initially thought."
But as time went on, the father of two saw his mental health start to decline and decided to seek help at Maggie's Glasgow and started working alongside Prostate Cancer UK in a bid to encourage other men to get tested.
"The first year was okay; I felt okay and all my friends and colleagues were really supportive," Gareth explained. "But when you come up to the first anniversary, it’s well-known that people with cancer can have lots of mental health issues.
"With prostate cancer there’s a massive study that shows advanced prostate cancer have the highest symptoms of depression. I went through all that and then got covid which all resulted in a bit of depression.
"I reached out to Maggie’s where one of my friends did a lot of fundraising and had some very good sessions with the psychologist who helped. The main thoughts in my mind after all this was 'I don’t want anyone else to have to go through this'."
Now, Gareth says he is at the "beginning of a journey of raising awareness" about the disease.
"In Scotland 35% of men are diagnosed with metastatic prostate cancer - that is a terrible thing. I really want to push for awareness and for men, and for women as well," he said.
"Men are always reticent to access health care and often present lately. Men like to put their head in the sand, but one in eight of us is going to have it.
"I just want every man who is 45 or more to know that they have a risk and that’s it’s easy to check the risk. The blood test is a blood test that is universally available."
He is also trying to educate others about the nature of palliative care, saying it is "not the same as end of life care".
"Really, it’s about giving the patient the best life they can have," he said.
"If you’ve got pain, or psychological issues, these can be dealt with and you can live your best life."
