Life Saving Talk
Life Saving Talk
When Pam Schewitz went along to a secretaries’ business networking event in Bristol last year the she had no idea it would help save the life of her partner.
Pam listened to a talk about Run for the Future, which is organised every year in the City by Rotarians in support of the Bristol Urological Institute’s Prostate Cancer Appeal. The speaker posed the question, “When did the man in your life last get checked out?”
On returning home to Long Ashton, Pam asked the man in her life, retired surveyor John Nicholls, when he had last gone for a check up? He’d never had one.
“John thought it involved a manual examination and didn’t even realise there was a simple blood test to check for prostate cancer,” said Pam. “I nagged him to have one and it’s hopefully saved his life. They found he had cancer and he’s now had an operation to remove it.”
John, who’s now 66 and a former local authority surveyor and latterly owner of a construction business, said he had no symptoms other than a reduce flow of urine.
A keen golfer and member at Woodspring Golf Club, John now tells all his friends and golfing partners about the importance of getting regular checks.
“I suppose I’ve turned into a bit of a nag and probably get on their nerves, but if it helps save their lives then I don’t care what they think,” he says.
John still has to go for further check ups to ensure all the cancer has been removed, but he’s convinced that if Pam hadn’t kept on at him to go for a blood test he may not be here today.
More than 10,000 men in the UK die every year from prostate cancer, but there’s no national screening programme available on the NHS. Men have to ask their GP’s for the PSA test.
Ms Schewitz says: “It’s a tragedy that men have to ask for a blood test. Women get called in for mammograms and smears automatically, but for men there is nothing.”
The couple plan to take part in this year’s Run for the Future and are recruiting friends and family to join them.
Run for the Future organiser, Martina Peattie, says the 5km event has so far raised over £175,000, money which is being used for two research projects in Bristol. “We’re hoping the research will lead to the introduction of a national screening programme, which will literally help save the lives of thousands of men.”
This year’s fun run/walk takes place on the Downs in Bristol on Sunday, 19 September. For more information, or to register to take part, visit www.runforthefuture.org or telephone 0117 323 6328.
