Ive read quite recently that it is one of the most significant killers of men, outside lung cancer. And he was very good, he said ‘sit down, and he explained that because I had come to him at this stage and my tumour was not too far advanced there was a very good chance of cure. If, well he was saying also the majority of men that he sees with prostate cancer are too far gone to be treated the treatment is only palliative so you know I was there with a pretty good chance of survival which is very encouraging of course. But still it’s a devastating shock you know okay were all mortal and we realise that the end will come at some stage. And I suppose as you get older you become more philosophical because your children have grown up, you look to the fulfilment of your life rather than the sort of negative side and you say well weve done well you know we, I feel I have a wonderful wife, a lovely family- I’m very fulfilled. So I had the feeling well you know death is something that weve all got to face you know there is nothing unique about dying in fact it’s quite the reverse. But by the same token it is still a shock when you think it’s round the corner.

It was nerve-wracking, everything went through your head. On the drive home from the hospital to home which is only about half an hour after being told what the surgeon thought it was you were going through, have you made your will, how is your wife going to cope financially, what have you done with the kids, should you do this, have you done that and that was morbid and you did begin to think all these things, you couldn’t help it. And I just remember driving incredibly slowly thinking that you know I can beat the cancer but don’t go stupid and forget how you’re driving or come off the road because you’re not thinking straight.

Going back to the Cancer Information Centre, this is when I first realised that I had cancer and I think for the first fortnight I was a bit unbearable to live with because I could not accept it myself, I didnt want to accept it. But I think after a period of a fortnight you sort of take yourself away and give yourself a damn good shake and say Come on get cracking and start living. And we did, my wife and I went off to Canada on a holiday and it was a hell of a job to get the insurance but it was well worth doing it.

Please could you tell me, what was the impact of the diagnosis on you and your family, only tell me what you want to say but it’s something other patients might want to know.

I’m trying to think back to sum it up. Of course it’s upsetting initially, particularly if you think you’re very fit but I suppose it wasn’t that much of a surprise because I’d been suspicious that something was wrong. And I suppose in a funny sort of way it was almost a relief to know what it was on the assumption that that is all that’s wrong. We don’t know necessarily that’s entirely the case but it was something of a relief to have confirmation of the position rather than the sort of continuing uncertainty, and perhaps the worries that it could be something even worse.

Well we thought mm it’s arrived [laughs] it’s been sort of coming all this while but now it’s actually here and I wasnt driven into panic or anything, I mean although it was malignant, there was some malignancy there it was at the lowest possible level of threat so I thought oh well well have to take it a step at a time, see what these next tests reveal. There was always something more to do and one didnt feel that, I didnt feel that I had to take any drastic decisions about jumping this way or jumping that way until these further tests had been done. So I postponed my visit to India.