Forgive me for taking up some of your time but I have an important message, initially of a very personal nature, but followed by the main message which is relevant to all the men in the club.
Some months ago I was diagnosed with stage 4 Prostate cancer. Not the best news I’ve ever received but I don’t bring this up now looking for sympathy as the treatment I am receiving would seem to be working well and it appears you will have to put up with me for some considerable time.
No, the reason for this posting is that I want to ensure that every single man in the club is aware that this disease is lurking and can have disastrous consequences.
The statistics can be daunting. At my age, in the eighties, some 80% of all men will contract Prostate cancer but everyone is susceptible. Obviously the older you are the higher the risk but I repeat everyone is at risk.
The answer is to have a PSA blood test which will confirm whether or not the cancer is present. And then arrange to have the PSA test done at regular intervals. Caught early the risks to life are minimal.
The government and the NHS are reluctant to introduce this testing before an advanced age, to be honest I’m not sure what that age is but it is late in life. By the time I had the test done my cancer had already metastasised so you need to pester, demand, be bloody minded and insist that the test is done. There is a petition doing the rounds to make the government change it’s policy and offer the test to everyone. Please support this petition.
At the club there are hundreds of the male species so an ideal environment for this message to be passed on and everyone interactively supporting each other. Let’s make a fuss and who knows, one day, you may be really glad that I took up this amount of your time.
Best regards
Pete Kenyon