A Scots surgeon who was diagnosed with incurable prostate cancer after noticing a pain in his foot is urging men to get tested for the disease.
Gareth Jones, 55, was diagnosed with an advanced form of the cancer in June 2021. He quickly faced a struggle to maintain his health - both physical and emotional - to the best of his ability as he received palliative care.
As reported by Glasgow Live, the urologist, who lives in Cambuslang with his wife Carol, was a fitness fanatic prior to his diagnosis. He spent years taking part in Iron Man challenges including swimming, biking and running.
Gareth said: "Through lockdown, I did lots of virtual events and my last was the virtual Manchester marathon. I was a reasonable runner. I first noticed my foot was sore, and although that wasn't a new thing and I've been injured before, it wasn't going away.
"In early 2021, I jumped off my bike because someone walked in front of me and twisted my back - things that have happened before but I wasn't getting through it this time. My left leg also wasn't working properly and I was tripping a lot.
"I was going home from work one day and it took me twice the time and I had abdominal pain. I knew something was wrong."
Initially, Gareth went to his GP for blood tests before learning of his diagnosis while on call at work.
He said: "I saw my GP at the beginning of June and we did blood tests. That Friday, I was on call at work for the next week, so I was going round the ward.
"At lunchtime I went to see my colleague and saw a field of red exclamation marks. It showed I had prostate cancer. She went to the diagnostic screen, and confirmed it. I then had to have a CT scan done that day, confirming that my spine and pelvis were full of cancer as well.
"On Monday I was in hospital for MRI scans, which was 90 minutes in the tube. Then I got the prostate biopsy and they gave me the first treatment, which was an injection to stop hormones getting produced.
"Because of my leg and the volume of cancer in back and hip they put me straight on radiotherapy. So I went to the Beatson the next week and got the scans to plan radiotherapy which would be happening five days a week.
"A few weeks later I saw the oncology doctor who decided it was best in addition to radiotherapy and injections that I go on some other pills to completely clear my body of any male hormone. Everything happened very quickly."
Gareth said he initially thought he would be dead within a year, describing the experience of being diagnosed as like being 'hit by a bus'.
He said: "I hadn’t dealt with men with prostate cancer beyond initial diagnosis in 20 years so all my knowledge as out of date. I thought with my blood tests I would be dead within a year, so that was not the best few months of my life. Then I started reading up on it and found out it maybe wasn’t as grim as I'd initially thought."
However, as time went on, the father of two saw a decline in his mental health and decided to seek help at Maggie's Glasgow before beginning to work alongside Prostate Cancer UK in a bid to encourage other men to test.
And despite living with prostate cancer, Gareth has not allowed it to stop him from exercising and committed himself to maintaining his fitness to the best of his abilities.
He said: "With, prostate cancer, there’s a massive study that shows advanced prostate cancer have the highest symptoms of depression. I reached out to Maggie’s where one of my friends did a lot of fundraising and had some very good sessions with the psychologist who helped. The main thoughts in my mind after all this was 'I don’t want anyone else to have to go through this'.
"What I want people to do is get a letter form somebody or QR codes to get checked when you’re 50.
"If you’re a surgeon, you have to be analytical, since I can’t do surgery, I have to sort myself out and it can be applied to other men in my situation. You have to live the life, you can’t just exist. There’s no point otherwise.
"I can’t ride the bike for six hours like I used to. I was off for six months but I’m back on it now. You can’t go as fast or ride as long and because of the lack of testosterone you can’t recover quickly.
"At the moment, I’m doing a fundraiser for Prostate Cancer UK, which is to take a marathon in the month. I did it last year and I did 180 miles in the month. That was with swimming, cycling, and the rest was walking and running.
"This year, I’m not as fit as I was and I have lowered my goals so I’m aiming for 100 miles in the month."
Scottish data has shown an 18% fall in the total number of men who first started treatment for prostate cancer in Scotland in the first year of the pandemic, which could result in higher risk of metastatic diagnoses for years to come.
Prostate Cancer UK is encouraging men across the country to use its 30-second online risk checker to help them understand their risk and what they can do about it.
