By Goya Dmytryshchak
This month, Altona’s Alan Major will celebrate his 54th birthday.
September is also Prostate Cancer Awareness Month and it marks one year since Mr Major was diagnosed with advanced prostate cancer.
He is urging other men to regularly get their blood checked for elevated levels of PSA or prostate-specific antigen, a protein produced by prostate gland cells. He visited a doctor because he was having difficulty going to the toilet.
“Believe me, it’s worth the effort of going to the doctor and following up,” Mr Major said.
“I went to the doctor for a check up and there were a number of things and amongst them was, go to the urologist, go to a throat specialist, go to another specialist.
“By the time I got through the first two, I’d forgotten about the third.”
Mr Major’s cancer was diagnosed late and had spread to his rib cage, spine and pelvis. He is now part of an international drug trial to test how long the return of the cancer can be paused.
“You can’t be cured of prostate cancer but you can manage it, so the trial is to see how long you can postpone the reinvigoration of it,” Mr Major said.
He said prostate cancer was a lot more common than people realised.
“It’s like a secret society.
“You start encountering not only men who have had prostate cancer and been undergoing treatment, but also a broader cross-section of society who are having chemotherapy or radiation therapy; it really is a secret society that you suddenly find yourself immersed in.
“It’s in part a positive because you’re not alone, but also it’s rather startling how many people are going through similar journeys.”
