With the goats and alpacas looking on from his idyllic property, father-of-three Paul Bain jogs along the country roads of Royalla, blossom trees bursting to life as the calendar ticks over to spring.
September 1, the first day of spring, marks the start of Prostate Awareness Month, drawing attention to the fact that this year 3900 Australian men will lose their battle with the disease. That's more than breast cancer kills women.
In mid-2020, Paul Bain was, by chance, diagnosed with the highest grade of prostate cancer that, had it not been detected, would have killed him by Christmas that year.
Lucky for him, his wife Angie urged him to get a general health check-up when he turned 50.
And equally as fortunate was that Paul's GP included a blood test that measured his PSA levels, an indicator of the health of the cells in the prostate gland. Paul was showing no symptoms of prostate cancer and had no family history of it but it was a true sliding door moment that his doctor made sure to include the PSA test.
Life changes in a moment
The results were shocking. Paul's PSA level was 39. A safe result is between 1 and 3. More tests and scans confirmed he had the highest and most aggressive type of prostate cancer.
He'd gone from thinking he was a healthy 50-year-old to having a discussion about how long he might have to live.
"It was just a hard thing to get my head around," he said.
But he is forever grateful the PSA test was done.
"The reality is if they didn't do that test, I would have been dead before Christmas of that year. It was that aggressive," Paul said.
Back in 2020, Paul had his prostate removed and underwent radiotherapy but the cancer could not be removed completely. The PSA levels were negligible. But 18 months later, they started to rise and "double and double again". Scans could not detect exactly where the cancer was growing until this year when an advanced machine in Melbourne revealed the cancer had metastasized to his ribs
Paul has had further radiotherapy and next week has an appointment with his oncologist to find out "what's next".
"The likelihood is the cancer will probably show up somewhere else. Once it gets into your bones, it's probably a case that it's never cured," he said.
"But it can be managed. The best case is every couple of years it shows up in a spot and I go in and have a couple of weeks of radiotherapy and [the PSA levels] come down."
Running for others
With all this on his mind, Paul is still thinking of others.
Now 54, he is running 100km in September to raise $30,000 for the Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia as part of its annual Long Run campaign. He's also been active in raising awareness of prostate cancer and knows his story has persuaded other men to have a PSA test, including one friend who was found to also have advanced prostate cancer.
"While I've been so passionate about advocacy is learning how many men, young men, it impacts and how many men die from it. It's absolutely frightening," Paul said.
A big motivator is letting men know what support is available to them especially after surgery when they may be dealing with side effects such as incontinence and sexual dysfunction.
"I've done a lot of work with the Prostate Cancer Foundation around initiatives, especially, for men in the country because men don't like like talking about their health," he said.
Prostate cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer in Australia and the most commonly diagnosed cancer among Australian men.
Men living in regional or rural areas of Australia have about a 24 per cent higher rate of dying from prostate cancer than their urban counterparts.
A former defence and intelligence consultant, Paul now works for Johnny H, a disability and support service in Canberra, helping young adults to get make connections, develop life skills, travel and get out and have adventure.
"It was a bit of career epiphany for me. I've only been doing it for 12 months," he said.
"And it's been great. I had been in a very high-pressure environment for a very long time and it makes you have a different think about things and what you do."
Angie and Paul have three children - Max, 17; Scarlett, 15; and Charlie, 13. The family is getting on with life together.
"Sometimes you can get caught up worrying about tomorrow and you waste today," he said.
- Donations to Paul Bain's efforts to make prostate cancer history can be made here.
