Irish men have been urged to open up and talk in order to raise awareness about prostate cancer. 

Except for non melanoma skin cancer, prostate cancer is the most common cancer among men in Ireland and over 3,300 individuals are diagnosed every year. 

 In recent decades, survival rates have shot up and a new campaign, Stand Up For Your Prostate, run by the Marie Keating Foundation is encouraging men to talk to their GP about the disease. 

“It was back in July 2017 when I was first diagnosed,” prostate cancer patient John Wall told Lunchtime Live. 

“I didn’t heed the warning signs because I didn’t know what to heed. If I had done, I wouldn’t have ended up like I have but five years ago I had an innocuous pain in the leg.” 

But the pain was anything but innocuous and John was diagnosed with Stage 4 cancer. 

“If I’d known - and this is part of this campaign - it’s to create awareness and also foster conversations about this. 

“The traditional symptoms would be if you need to urinate more frequently at night, a need to rush to the toilet, if you have hesitancy peeing, if you have a weak flow and blood in urine or semen. 

“They’re all classic symptoms but bear in mind there are also people who have no symptoms at all.” 

John is one of a minority of prostate cancer patients for whom the disease will be fatal; he has had surgery, radiotherapy and received chemotherapy and hormone treatment to extend his life, but ultimately it cannot be saved: 

“Intervention has prolonged my life but it won’t prolong it to the extent that I would like it to,” he said. 

“I was Stage 4 when diagnosed and I was very, very fortunate in that the treatment that I received has been exceptional and I’ve reacted very well to that treatment.

“It’s worked very well but… at this point I’ve outlived my original prognosis… but I don’t want to see other people end up in a position like myself. There’s no need.

“At the end of the day, it’s one of those cancers that if caught early it’s very, very treatable for the vast majority of people.

“And that’s why we need to keep talking about it.”

Main image: Page of hospital form concerning prostate cancer. Picture by: Alamy.com