The founder of an award-winning prostate cancer charity has joined in delivering an impassioned plea to parliament calling for a national screening programme be introduced in the UK to help save the lives of thousands of men.
Graham Fulford, founder of The Graham Fulford Charitable Trust (GFCT), which has carried out more than 300,000 PSA tests and detected 3,200 cancers over the last 20 years, joined Prostate Cancer Research in delivering a petition signed by more than 138,000 people demanding a nationwide testing programme.
Graham, from Warwick, who received an MBE for services to prostate cancer awareness last month, urged parliament to support the charity’s work to help ensure early detection of the disease, which affects more than 56,000 men in the UK each year.
He told MPs: “To combat the UK’s worsening statistics on PCa, nothing less than a national screening programme is likely to be significant.
“Prostate cancer is now the most common major cancer in the UK and second most common cause of male cancer deaths at 56,780 new cases and 13,168 deaths in 2020, a mortality rate worse than most of our western neighbours.
“This death rate is second only to lung cancer, for which a national screening programme is being introduced. However, if current trends continue and no parallel programme is introduced, PCa will soon take top spot.
“This submission, therefore, relates specifically to PCa and the inequity and lack of a coherent NHS screening strategy or programme for the UK’s commonest male cancer.”
Graham’s parliament address comes on the back of news last month (October) that Sir Chris Hoy, 48, has been diagnosed with terminal prostate cancer.
Amid an outpouring of support for the celebrated Olympian, huge numbers of men have been coming forward to get checked.
However, Graham and the GFCT said the positive impact of Sir Chris’s campaign could be wasted because too many GPs are refusing to test men who don’t have any symptoms of prostate cancer.
Graham said: “This could be the biggest game changer ever for prostate cancer.
“Sir Chris has made a very public plea for the testing age to be reduced to 45 or perhaps even 40 for men with a family history, or if from an African Caribbean background.
“Both groups of men are known to be more at risk and, indeed, this has been reinforced by the current health minister.
“Even if this well-overdue change is accepted at the top table, experience tells us its implementation is likely to be somewhat different.
“We have lots of men over 50 coming to us because their GP has refused them a PSA test, many with a family history of the disease.
“We appreciate all men should be counselled before undergoing a test and we have sympathy for GPs facing increasing demand for their services with stretched reserves, particularly following the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.
“However, we strongly believe they should be giving credence to the latest research which shows conducting MRI scans before biopsies, using risk-based factors such as age, ethnicity and family history must be acknowledged.”
Graham confirmed a range of new advanced PSA tests are showing excellent results and said the charity was on hand to support GPs who may feel overburdened with testing requests.
“We have access to four of the leading new advanced tests and operate a risk-based algorithm for advice on retesting periods to avoid annual tests where possible,” added Graham.
“We work closely with Dr Asif Naseem, a GP with a specialist interest in prostate cancer who has recently helped two men with high PSA scores to get a two-week referral into the NHS cancer diagnosis pathway.
“These were very timely interventions for both men, who sadly had been faced with the too-often-heard response of ‘come back when you have symptoms’ from their own GP.”
One firm advocate of testing and the work of GFCT is Jim Burton, 73, of Kings Norton, Birmingham who was diagnosed with prostate cancer at the age of 60.
Keen fishing enthusiast Jim now raises money for the charity’s vital work through events in the angling community.
He said: “I went for my NHS health check aged 60 and my GP asked how I was. I said I was top of the shop, feeling great and nothing wrong. My GP sent me for a PSA test and the reading was a bit high, and I was diagnosed with aggressive cancer.
“I had my prostate cut out and 37 zaps of radiotherapy over eight weeks. They found the cancer was also in my lymph nodes and bladder, so I had more treatment for that.
“If it wasn’t for that PSA blood test, I wouldn’t be here. While my local GP sent me, the problem is that while a lot of GPs are not against it, they’re not exactly for it either.
“In the same way women’s bodies change when they go through the menopause, men have changes in the prostate. It’s simply nature’s way of saying your reproductive organs aren’t as useful as they once were! That’s why it’s so important to check for any changes.”
GFCT runs testing events all over the country, enabling anyone over 40 to have a simple blood test to identify possible health concerns.
For more information on the Graham Fulford Charitable Trust and its work, visit https://tgfct.org.uk.