Halifax HX1 1PR
First Tuesday every month
- Prostate Cancer Stories
Ian's Story
This is Ian’s prostate cancer journey, so far. It is candid and written to share his experiences, good and bad, with those who perhaps are on their own prostate cancer journey.
It all started by chance...
I was reading an article about prostate cancer in a magazine one day and noted that the chance of having prostate cancer increased if a sibling had either prostate cancer or breast cancer. Well, my sister had been diagnosed with breast cancer around a year prior and my father died of breast cancer. Breast cancer is very common in my family due to the prescence of the BRCA2 gene and indeed I was tested negative for the gene a few years ago. I’d been getting up frequently overnight to go to the toilet so I decided perhaps I should take a test.
Ickle test
Being pretty sure that I was ok and not wanting to worry my wife unduly, I secretly ordered an Ickle Test on the internet. The test kit arrived and I pee’d on the stick as instructed. The indication of blood in my urine came as a complete shock and I made an appointment to see my GP straight away, as well as sharing my concerns with my wife.
A visit to my GP
My GP listened to my concerns and asked a few questions about the frequency of my nocturnal visits to the toilet. Then came the dreaded finger examination of my prostate. My GP said that yes my prostate was enlarged, but it was most likely benign and very common for men of my age and the blood in my urine was due to a mild urinary tract infection, UTI. ‘To be on the safe side’ she took a blood sample for a PSA test. I shouldn’t worry.
Investigations
After a few days I got the results of my PSA test, a value of 8.5 with the normal range up to 3.9. My GP said I was not to worry but he was putting me on a ‘fast track’ investigation for prostate cancer. I received an appointment to undergo some tests at Calderdale Royal Hospital, an ultrasound of my bladder and kidneys, then a cystoscopy (camera fed through my urethra into my bladder) and finally a CT scan of my kidneys. All these tests were negative, so I was then invited in to have a MRI scan of my prostate.
When I received the results of this scan I started to worry as now they wanted me to attend for biopsy samples from my prostate. So off I went again to Halifax to be placed in what looked like a birthing chair with my legs akimbo. They were going to take samples of my prostate using needles through my perinium. Thank goodness I had a lovely nurse with me making conversation whilst the samples were taken with loud clicks. Where was I going for holiday this year, click! Have I got any grandchildren, click! Eventually is was done and I could go home, sore, but glad it was finished.
Next I had an appointment for a whole of body bone scan. Why do I need this I asked. Just routine I was told. So this time I went into Huddersfield Royal Infirmary. I was injected with a radioactive isotope, told to go away and drink two pints of liquid (so off to Wetherspoons) and return for the scan. It was like being trapped in a giant photocopier. As I lay flat on my back the measuring head slowly moved from my head to my toes.
Results day
Once again I had an apppointment through in the post to attend HRI in the Urology department this time. I arrived at the appointed time with my wife, Kathy, accompanying me. I sat down in the consulting room with the consultant and a specialist prostate cancer nurse, Miriam. ‘Well Mr Barker we have put you through a lot of tests, what do you think is wrong with you?’ To which my response was, ‘Well I rather hoped you would tell me that!’ ‘You have prostate cancer with a Gleason score of 9, which is a high grade. I’ve looked at your bone scan and I don’t think it has spread to your bones, but I’m no Radiologist!’
First thoughts were, am I going to die? How long have I left? Can it be treated? And there was almost an out of body experience as though I was looking down on the scene. Of course I assumed that I had prostate cancer before I went into the room, but hearing it said by someone else is totally different. Miriam was absolutely wonderful shepherding Kathy and I out and into another office and gently explaining exactly what the results were and the next steps. She explained that whilst it was a stage 3 cancer as it had spread beyond the prostate and into the seminal vessels, it had not been detected in my lymph nodes and the results of the bone scan would be available after a meeting of specialists to review my case and determine best treatment options, which would be in a week’s time.
A week has never taken so long to go, but Miriam, bless her, phoned as soon as she left the review meeting to let me know that it wasn’t present in my bones and that the Oncologist would be in touch shortly to discuss treatment options.
My treatment plan
My Oncologist gave me the choice of a Brachytherapy operation in St James Hospital Leeds followed by sessions of reduced Radiotherapy or just Radiotherapy sessions. I would be on 3 monthly Prostap hormone injects for at least three years. The Brachytherapy is where they inject hundreds of tiny radioactive beads into the prostate which remain there for the rest of your life. I was told that as I was relatively young, 64, I should be able to tolerate the side effects from the Brachytherapy and it would give the best chance of curing the cancer, so of course that was the option I took. They didn’t offer to remove the prostate as the cancer had already spread outside of the prostate. For the radiotheraphy they said they would focus on the whole of my pelvic area because of the cancer already spreading from the prostate.
The treatment at St James Hospital Leeds went to plan and was carried out during April 2024 for the Brachytherapy and May 2024 for the 20 sessions of Radiotherapy. All of the clinical staff involved were wonderful and the whole exerience was highly professional if not a bit tiring.
Life after treatment
It has now been two years since my treatment. My PSA has remained low, around 0.01. In August 2025 I started to have frequency and urgency of urination problems and to cut a very long story short, after many weeks on various antibiotics, it was identified that due to latent effects of my Radiotherapy treatment, (remember I had radiotherapy on the whole of my pelvis area) I would need an operation to remove some of the prostate material in my urethra (TURP), take a sample of the thickening on one side of my bladder and place a stent in the ureter between my bladder and right kidney. Fortunately this could all be done in the same operation, which I had on the 1st December 2025. No sign of prostate or bladder cancer were found in the samples of tissue taken. My stent will need replacing under general anesthetic every 6 months until it hopefully holds on its own.
Putting all of that to one side, life is good and with a few little accommodations and changes to my lifestyle there is little that I can’t do that I used to.