Dominic Bascombe, Voice Reporter
( L - R ) JAMES BROWN, BISHOP TUTU, COLIN POWELL AND LOUIS FARRAKHAN
LONDON:
THEY'VE ALL faced death from prostate cancer ... and survived. Now campaigners urge black men to get themselves checked out.
Rawle Price's life changed when he was diagnosed with prostate cancer in the summer of 2003.
"When I had the blood test and I was told that my PSA [prostate specific antigen] was high, that didn't really mean a lot to me. It was only after I had the digital rectal examination, when the surgeon felt the prostate and I had the biopsy, that I was told that I was positive. I wasn't even expecting any of that.
"I was totally shocked. The doctor was sitting in front of me and my mind just blanked out.Hearing the word 'cancer' puts you on a different level."
He added: "It took me a couple of days before I told anybody because I was so shocked. I told my son a couple of days after and I just broke down. As the weeks went on and I began to understand it more, I began to tell a couple of friends and explained the situation. I told them that if they've got anything wrong with them, to just go to the doctor."
LITTLE KNOWLEDGE
Like many of the 30,000 other men diagnosed with prostate cancer every year, Price knew very little about the disease.
"I had heard about prostate cancer before, but I didn't know a lot about it at all," he said.
"I thought it was just older people who get this thing. Since I've had it, I've learnt so much. When I was diagnosed, I read a couple of books to understand it and I couldn't believe how many men, especially black men, are out there with the symptoms and don't do anything about it."
He continued: "I didn't have any symptoms myself. Initially I went to the doctor because I felt a bit run down." It was only after a routine blood pressure and blood test that Price was referred to an oncologist who caught the disease. Luckily, it was still in the moderate stages.
He was able to have keyhole surgery a few months later and had his entire prostate removed. The cancer had not spread to any other part of his body.
His concern now is to get men to overcome the stigma of going to their GP.
"Each person knows their own body and feels that it will go away," he said.
"They've got this stigma, especially when I told them that my doctor stuck his finger up my back passage to check the prostate. But if you know something is wrong you will go and get checked out to save your life."
Cancer can be detected in the prostate gland when dividing cells develop into tumours. This explains why a prostate examination requires the doctor to insert a finger to assess the shape and feel of the gland.
FEAR
Sadly, fear of undertaking this intrusive medical examination explains why black men avoid seeking help, even though black men are three times more likely to develop prostate cancer than their white counterparts.
Ali Orhan, community involvement manager at the Prostate Cancer Charity, said: "Most people are quite surprised that they are more at risk.
"There's not much publicity in the black media or the general media.
"The minority think it's a conspiracy and don't want to take any notice of it.
"Anecdotally, we know that there are a number of black men who won't go to the doctor.
"It's partly because of the nature of the exam. There's a certain amount of embarrassment associated with it. There is a sense of this as a sign of weakness, so people don't tend to want to present to their GP's early on. That could be for a number of reasons. Maybe they don't have a good relationship with their GP. Or they don't know which signs to look out for, they might think it is just a sign of getting old. For example with erectile problems, they may think 'I'm getting old so that's to be expected'."
He added: "The rectal examination is taboo in the community. That's the main barrier. People don't want to do that because they feel their sexuality will be tampered with, and it is embarrassing.
SELF EXAMINATIONS
"People ask if they can self-exam but it is almost impossible to do it yourself. It's not a painful exam, it just takes a couple of seconds and could save your life."
Even though the statistics show that black men are more at risk, the reason for this are still unknown.
"The research still has nothing conclusive [to say]," said Orhan.
"We don't know if it's lifestyle or genetic or diet. We do know that it's an age-related thing, it can be hereditary - you're more likely to get it if a close relative had it."
According to 1990 figures, the highest number of cases recorded for prostate cancer in the world is in Kingston, Jamaica. Trinidad also figures highly. "I don't know if it's because people are testing more though," explains Orhan.
For the past three years, the Prostate Cancer charity has been running an awareness project with branches in Birmingham, Bristol, Bradford, Liverpool and Leeds.
PROMOTING AWARENESS
This week, the charity will be launching a number of events aimed at promoting awareness around the country. In Keighley, Bradford, regulars will take part in a pub quiz as part of the 'Real Man' campaign.
The quiz will include prostate cancer awareness questions with the aim of helping men to learn more about their bodies in a light-hearted way, and win some prizes at the same time.
Merv Pemberton, men's health adviser at Airedale Primary Care Trust, said it was important to help create an environment where men could talk freely about the topic.
"It's a way to get them thinking about it," he said.
"We're getting men to realise that their health is as important as anything else. It's like boys with toys - men with their sports car and such. If that needs repairing, we get it repaired straight away. We won't wait weeks and weeks to have it repaired.
"Guys on normal nights at the pub will go down with their mates but there's no way of them talking about their health. They'll talk about sports, women and cars, but not their health."
- This story was reprinted from the Voice of March 20-26, 2006.
