An Essex local radio enthusiast has been using a special amateur radio callsign to raise awareness for prostate cancer - after he was diagnosed with the disease himself. Andrew Brown's awareness campaign launched last week with the aim of using the radio airwaves to highlight the importance of seeking help for your body.
Mr Brown, 47, has emphasised how crucial it is to speak to your GP if your body is telling you that something isn't right. He has spoken after he was diagnosed with prostate cancer himself earlier this year. This was despite being a fit and healthy man for all of his life with no other real health problems to speak of.
He said: "One in eight men in the UK will be diagnosed with prostate cancer at some point in their life, and this event is a way of combining my own personal journey through having prostate cancer this year, and my love of amateur radio. I will be using amateur radio as a way of communicating and raising awareness of prostate cancer, as well as raising funds for the charity Prostate Cancer UK."
Mr Brown first began to notice something wasn't quite right when he needed to visit the toilet a lot more frequently, and then once he had been felt the need to go again a short while later. In the middle of a lockdown, he had a telephone consultation with his GP and then submitted a blood test.
Following a biopsy in February this year, the worst news was confirmed. Writing about his journey in his online blog, Mr Brown said he found out the news on March 18. He said: "It wasn’t 'Friday the Thirteenth' but the news I received that day means it felt like one.
"That was the day I was told that the biopsy had found cancer. There was a lot more information provided to me that day but didn’t really take any of that in once it had been confirmed it was cancer. I was sent home with a huge bunch of reading materials on the possible treatments and given some time to reflect on possible ways forward.
"The next few days were spent doing a lot of research. Stats, stages, treatments, outcomes, life expectance and of course talking to family about the results. It certainly wasn’t the best weekend!"
However, following successful surgery in April, Mr Brown is now on the mend with the cancer being undetectable and now in remission. He added: "Over the next month, my recovery went a bit better every day. I was able to get out and do a little bit more walking each day. Of course, there is no lifting, so no housework for the first 2 months so I had to take it easy. My body told me when I was doing too much as I would find myself sleeping all afternoon on the sofa if I did.
"Three months after the surgery I went for a PSA blood test, as long as all the cancer had been removed and there was no other prostate cancer then the reading should be zero. Few days later the news came that it was in fact undetectable and that I was in full remission from cancer! Now I will just have to have a blood test every 6 months for the next 3 years to check nothing untoward has reoccurred and I can carry on with life."
Mr Brown's radio event was launched at the East Essex Hackspace, a new community centre in Hockley, and is being supported by three local amateur radio clubs Essex Ham, the South Essex Amateur Radio Society and the Thames Amateur Radio Group.
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