A father suffering from stage four bowel cancer has made prevention his hobby as he tries to break the taboos surrounding prostate exams that stop many men from seeking medical help.
“Don’t be stupid because it could literally save your life,” Briton Ian Trushell, a Royal Air Force sergeant, told The Independent on Monday without mincing words.
The 49-year-old from Northumberland, who has always kept fit, spoke out to encourage men not to be put off having prostate exams after he himself was diagnosed with stage 4 incurable prostate cancer in August 2022.
“They're going to look for hemorrhoids, which is a finger in the butt and I know some people are bothered by that. But I want people to get past that and see the bigger picture: [les médecins] could develop cancer at an early stage,” the forty-year-old continued to the British newspaper.
The father of three teenagers began experiencing fatigue during a four-month deployment to Oman in West Asia in late 2021, which he attributed to stress and age.
But it wasn't until July 2022 that he decided to go for a consultation after suffering from abdominal pain and noticing “black blood” when going to the toilet, he continued in an interview.
After a brief prostate exam, the doctor referred him for a colonoscopy, a medical procedure that uses a long, flexible tube with a small camera to examine the intestines and detect the presence of widespread cancer in his liver.
“It is not [une procédure] “It’s nice, but it has to be done,” the forty-year-old told The Independent.
Despite his pessimistic diagnosis, the father hopes to extend his life expectancy, which was initially two years, after 16 cycles of chemotherapy by finding a specialist in Germany.
To cover the £50,000 cost, the equivalent of almost $85,000, his family launched a crowdfunding campaign that had reached almost half of its goal as of Tuesday.