We speak to John Flanagan who lives in Caerleon about his battle with prostate cancer, and he says all men of a certain age should go and get checked whenever they can.
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00:00And I'd seen a repeat of a documentary by Bill Turnbull, one of the journalists, where
00:10he explained his journey through prostate cancer.
00:16And I just wondered why, at 73 years old, I hadn't been checked for that.
00:23John says that his diagnosis was of course difficult to take, but quickly decided that
00:27it was his job to make the most of his life with cancer, and has now spent time raising
00:32awareness and has encouraged a number of his friends to go get checked.
00:36And that's where my journey started. And from that point on, my decision was NHS will do
00:46their part on this, with chemotherapy or radiotherapy or whatever they're going to do. My part is
00:53to stay fit.
00:55PSA tests are one of the best ways to find out if you have prostate cancer, but men have
00:59to ask for a test and will not be offered them outright. Amy from Prostate Cancer UK
01:04says that she wants the system to change.
01:07So the problem at the moment is that there are some NHS guidelines around PSA testing
01:13and they say all men are entitled to have a PSA test, but they have to ask for it. It's
01:19not on GPs to have a conversation with you and say, would you like a test? And that's
01:26really problematic, particularly for those groups of men at highest risk.
01:31Just to all men, go and get it checked. It's simple.
01:37Yeah. And also I think men don't talk as easily about their, particularly this sort of problem
01:45or this sort of issue. They don't want to talk about it. Women talk easily about their
01:51bodies and their lives. So men need to be as open as that and don't be frightened to
01:58talk and open up about it.