“When I told my male friends I had prostate cancer, they expected me to have symptoms but I didn’t.” 

Guildford resident, Alan K, aged 74, didn’t have any symptoms when he was diagnosed with prostate cancer in March of this year following a raised PSA test.

“Luckily, I was having regular blood tests at my GP surgery and they tested my PSA levels, but I had no symptoms – no getting up six times in the night, no blood in the urine, no urgency to go to the loo,” he explained. “When I told my male friends I had prostate cancer, they expected me to have symptoms but I didn’t.”

Alan, a chartered accountant, had an MRI scan followed by a biopsy which showed there were cancerous cells in the prostate but they hadn’t spread.

“I was told they had caught the cancer early which meant a good chance of successful treatment without the need for surgery to remove the prostate  – this has all been very reassuring for both me and my wife,” says Alan.

He regularly walks the Surrey Hills with a group of male friends and adds: “Before my diagnosis, we used to chat about our creaking bones while we were on walks, but now it’s been prostate cancer awareness and getting a PSA test. Two of my friends have already gone and done that since I told them about my diagnosis.”

Alan’s is currently being treated with hormone tablets, followed by radiotherapy later this summer and then brachytherapy – internal radiotherapy using tiny radioactive seeds which delivers high doses of radiation directly to the prostate.