I WAS diagnosed with prostate cancer back in 2021, and I know what it feels like to have your time threatened by a serious illness.

In 2020, I had a slightly raised PSA result and was told to keep an eye on it and come back again in 12 months.

A year later, I was getting a bit sore, having ridden a static bike in the gym for around six months, and I started having more trips to the toilet at night, as well as having more urgency when I needed to go.

This prompted me to say OK it’s been a year, let’s go and have another test. A subsequent MRI and biopsy showed I had prostate cancer. 

Every minute you can spend with the people you love is incredibly precious.

I am now 57 years old and work as a supervisor in a GP surgery. I enjoy keeping fit and active, and seeing the people who matter to me. The cancer could have taken all of that away.

Any extra time that science can give us should be ours but thousands of men with advanced prostate cancer are currently being denied access to life-extending medicines which could slow down their cancer and improve their quality of life.

Prostate cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer in the UK, with 1 in 8 men in the UK expected to be diagnosed with the illness in their lifetime, but, as black men, we’re at twice that risk – 1 in 4 of us will get prostate cancer. 

Recovery

The only treatments options offered to me at the point of diagnosis were either radiotherapy or a radical prostatectomy.

I was advised by both the surgeon and the radiographer that surgery would be the best option for me, given my age, ethnicity, and the growth rate of my cancer.

It really was a no-choice situation, so I called the surgeon’s secretary and got myself on a cancellation list. Within four weeks, I was already on the surgeon’s operating table. 

Twelve months down the line, I am feeling even healthier than I did before, but I would have liked to have more options.

It’s really important for people to have the maximum number of choices available for their treatment. Having more options empowers the individual which is actually one of the most important aspects of prostate cancer recovery.

Other men aren’t so lucky and when cancer stops responding to therapy, there are even fewer options left. The five-year rate for people with advanced prostate cancer has been stuck at 49% for 30 years. Two promising new medicines have finally arrived which could extend the lives of these men as well as sparing them the unpleasant side effects that often come with cancer therapy. 

Pressure

Side effects are an ongoing issue for me and I’ve met so many men in my support group who find themselves in the same position.

One of the main side effects of my journey has been that I’ve actually been celibate since the date of my diagnosis.

I decided I didn’t want to put myself at risk of mentally having to cope with the erectile dysfunction meaning that I couldn’t perform or feel pressure to try and have sex sooner than I felt ready, which others in relationships may feel.

I’m forever grateful that my treatment has been successful, but treatments with fewer side effects are absolutely vital. 

Pluvicto is a drug that tracks down and attaches itself to a protein called prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA), which is found in 80 to 90% of advanced prostate cancers.

Olaparib uses the cancer’s genetics and can slow down the rate at which cancer spreads in the 8% of prostate cancer patients with the BRCA1/2 mutation.

Patients taking Pluvicto can have a better quality of life, have less risk that their cancer will progress and less risk of dying from cancer, and in terminal cases, life expectancy is prolonged by five months.

Life

Treatment with Olaparib nearly doubled the time patients were free of their cancer spreading, in comparison with those taking other cancer treatments. 

So far, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) have failed to approve these drugs for use on the NHS, even though if they did, the 12,000 men still dying of prostate cancer every year in the UK would be eligible for them.

Olaparib is available to patients in Scotland, but not England, Wales or Northern Ireland, making the cancer care that you can access in the UK a postcode lottery.

Olaparib is also already used to treat other cancers on the NHS. Three leading cancer charities, Prostate Cancer Research, Prostate Cancer UK and Tackle Prostate Cancer, are calling for patients in England, Wales and Northern Ireland not to be left behind. 

Until this playing field is levelled, and these medicines both approved for use across the UK, thousands of men will continue to be left behind and miss out on the real chance for a longer life. 

It is not currently understood why black men are more at risk of developing prostate cancer but the latest statistics reveal a truly shocking figure: 1 in 4 black men get diagnosed with prostate cancer at some point in their lives. This is a crucial issue for our community so treatments that give us longer and better lives must be fought for.  

Everyone affected by cancer deserves the best possible chance, a life worth living, and far more years of life than they often get. These drugs represent remarkable scientific advances, give precious extra months of good quality life, and it’s time for patients to benefit from them. For this to happen, all we need is for the Government to remove the final barrier. 

These drugs are ready, and waiting on pharmacy shelves. The regulators, the Government and the NHS have an incredible chance to give men back the time which is stolen from them. They absolutely must seize it and grant us access to these drugs.