A Fife grandfather has called for greater testing of men over 50 for prostate cancer after a “fluke” led to him being diagnosed before the disease had a chance to spread.
Arthur Tindal, 65, from Leven, was given antibiotics to treat a kidney infection last August.
However, a blood test taken at the investigatory stage of his condition led to the revelation he had cancer – despite no symptoms – and he subsequently elected for an operation to have his prostate removed.
The operation means that the retired engineer is now incontinent and has erectile dysfunction.
But having recently become a grandfather for the first time, the Leven Thistle Golf Club member said the treatment was a “small price to pay” as he aims to live a longer and healthy life.
Speaking to The Courier ahead of his story being told on the BBC Scotland documentary The Cancer Hospital on Wednesday May 2, Arthur, who retired two years ago after 48 years working with Balfours of Leven said: “If I can get one person to go and checked then it’s been worth it.
“The process wasn’t nice. They put fingers where the sun don’t shine and took biopsies. It’s uncomfortable. At the end of the day I think that’s why men don’t go. It’s invasive.
“But it’s not painful.
“Folk try to be macho. But it’s a big price to pay. It’s a matter of life and death.”
Arthur, who has been back playing golf for weeks following his operation in January, added that the standard of care he received from NHS Fife and the Western General Hospital in Edinburgh was “fantastic”.
However, he would like to see more research as the prostate cancer PSA test is often inconclusive and not always proactively offered to patients, he said.
The second episode of The Cancer Hospital, being screened on Wednesday May 2 at 9pm on BBC One Scotland, concentrates on prostate cancer with six men with the disease being treated in different ways.
The programme, which focuses predominantly on the work of the Beatson Hospital in Glasgow, highlights the fact that men with early-stage, curable prostate cancer are given a choice of treatments – which can be a dilemma in itself.
Among the men featured is Eddy, 63, who has early-stage cancer. He has chosen to have it treated with radiotherapy beamed in externally by the Beatson’s state-of the-art technology.
The programme also features Craig, who has advanced, incurable cancer, and it shows how the quality of life, he has left, is enhanced by an innovative pain-reduction procedure.
The film also shows how clinical trials are improving the outlook for patients through the story of Archie, who has had incurable cancer for eight years, and whose disease is being kept at bay by a new, unlicensed trial drug.
Prime Minister Theresa May recently set out £75 million plans to increase funding for prostate cancer research in a bid to get patients “treated earlier and faster”.
