RESIDENTS of Stafford are being urged to inform themselves about one of the most common forms of cancer affecting men by visiting an information stand at Stafford Hospital this month.
Uro-oncology nurse Jane Begley said Prostate Cancer Awareness Month, which runs throughout March, was a good opportunity for people to get all the information they need without feeling embarrassed.
The stand, set up in the foyer of the hospital for the duration of March, offers information, booklets and leaflets on the condition.
“One in eight men will get prostate cancer in their lifetimes, but it’s a well known fact that a large proportion of men in the UK know nothing or very little about their prostate, or in fact where it is and what its function is,” she said. “It is not surprising then that some men find prostate problems difficult to talk about and often put any urinary symptoms they may have down to the aging process.”
She said the prostate gland was about the size of a walnut and found under the bladder in men.
“Although prostate cancer incidence has almost tripled in the last 40 years this is mostly due to increased detection and is likely related to better health awareness, well man clinics, media campaigns and Prostate Specific Antigen (PSA) blood testing,” said Ms Begley, who has specialised in uro-oncology at the Trust for the past eight years and established a support group for patients diagnosed with prostate cancer.
For more information on the group, which meets on the first Tuesday of every month at Stafford Hospital’s Post Graduate Medical Centre, call 01785 257 731.
