I got very lucky

Pleased you and your Pa are doing well.

Do you have any male siblings or children? They should be made aware of your familial link in due course.

Cheers, John.

I took part in an awareness event in Reading town centre on Saturday.

We spoke with over 260 men or partners, most of which should result in a PSA test being done if they follow through. They all went away with the PCUK or Tackle information Z-cards, and in many cases, also more detailed information, and/or detailed discussion about symptoms.

A lot of people wont speak to you when they realise what you're going to talk about. We were wearing tabards saying what we were doing - I can't remember the wording but it did mention Prostate Cancer. The reactions from these people was notable. You engage with a smile first which they respond to, and then it takes a second or two to read the tabard, and they do a sharp about-turn and walk briskly in the other direction. I managed to stuff the Z-cards into the hands of several gents who wouldn't speak to me, and said read it at home. Also, suddenly claiming they don't speak English (in perfect English).

It was very difficult to engage black people in conversations - I only succeeded once, and I think there was only one other encounter on the stand. This is a big issue with PCa awareness, and some parts of the community at twice the risk are very hard to reach out to. There are almost none at any of the support groups too.

Also, quite a few (more than I expected) said they already had PCa and were still going through diagnosis, or treatment, or had finished and were in remission. This changed my conversation to that of close relatives and warning them about risks of PCa and breast cancer.

It was organised by Reading Prostate Cancer Support Group.
They did an earlier one in March, and they're doing another one at The Classic Car Show at Newbury Racecourse on August 11th (which I probably can't attend due to treatment). We use materials mainly from PCUK, but also Tackle.

You could look for a local support group if you want to help out. There's a list of some on the PCUK web pages, but if you said which town, people might respond with those near you. The local support groups generally have less knowledge that you will find here, and might benefit from anyone willing to join and help them, and organising or helping with awareness events. A few local support groups do have resident consultants in attendance.