A COUNCILLOR has spoken of his experience with cancer as he made a return to full council earlier this month.
Brian Wernham, Liberal Democrat councillor for Stanwix Urban on Cumberland Council, is over half way through a three year treatment for prostate cancer.
The whole experience has allowed him to reflect on the state of the NHS, the importance of early diagnoses, and the mobility requirements of the councillor role.
He said he first met with his GP as he ‘felt a bit off – not quite as dynamic as normal’, and was told it was likely depression. He was prescribed Sertraline, an anti-depressant drug.
That didn’t work, and he was told by someone to consider a PSA (prostate-specific antigen) test.
He said he thought the only test was a digital examination (a doctor inserting a finger via the anus to physically check the prostate).
“A lot of of men think we have to get this done. I was speaking to one man and he said it was a bit too intimate, but he didn’t know that you can just do a simple fingerprick blood PSA test,” Cllr Wernham said.
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He bought a self-testing kit for around £8 from Amazon and used it as an initial warning indicator while waiting for a test via his GP who told him that, due to him having no family history or extreme symptoms of prostate cancer, that he was to be put on a low-priority list, with two weeks to wait for blood results to return.
His self-test device was simple to use and within five minutes returned a ‘black line’ indicating a high result, which could mean - but does not guarantee - that cancer is present in the prostate.
“It’s an alarm bell, so I bought a more expensive test for £50—a lab test you self-collect at home.
“You post it back, and the next morning a practitioner at the private lab phoned me and said, ‘Your PSA is 20, and it should be 2.’ That’s when I knew there was a problem.
“At that stage, I escalated it with my doctor, and I had to push a lot.
“Finally, I got referred for an MRI, and they did a very detailed MRI.
“It showed where it was and that it was stage 3B,” he said, explaining that the worst result is for stage 4, which is the case with former Olympic cyclist Sir Chris Hoy.
48-year-old Sir Chris recently revealed he was told his cancer is terminal and he had not been entitled to a PSA test via the NHS.
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He has since used his voice to urge the government to reassess universal screening for prostate cancer for men in their 40s - instead of only men in their 50s which is the current policy - and for men to get tested sooner to catch it early.
Health secretary Wes Streeting said in response to the cyclist’s comments: “I think he makes a powerful argument there.
“That’s why I’ve asked the NHS to look at the case for lowering the screening age on prostate cancer, and he even makes a particularly powerful case where there’s family history.”
Cllr Wernham said the government should go further, offering these cheap PSA tests for all men universally from the age of 40 first, rather than relying on men to come forward.
“If I’d left it any later, this would have been really bad," he said.
“I think the lesson to be learned here is not to delay; screen, even if you think it’s something minor—get a test.
“I think it’s unrealistic to expect the NHS to test every year, but it doesn’t have to be so hard or complicated,” he said, admitting that the test is just one potential red flag, and an MRI and further contact with the NHS is crucial to confirm the presence of cancer.
“I would say every man should get it done every year,” he added.
But he claimed he was dissuaded from trusting the result of his finger prick test, being told they’re inaccurate - something he disagrees with.
“During treatment (radiotherapy and androgen deprivation therapy pills), I paid £50 every week for the same private lab tests, and the PSA was clearly going down, it was halving every three or four days.
“PSA tests are accurate—it’s the interpretation that could be inaccurate.
“You could have a higher PSA that’s not due to cancer, or you could have a lower rate, but cancer could still be lurking,” he said.
He said there’s a ‘gold plating’ and ‘over complication’ of this illness, and resents the fact it took a celebrity to turn heads to the issue, despite Prostate Cancer UK’s repeated and longtime pushing for a nationwide screening programme.
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Prostate cancer cases in the North East and North Cumbria rose by 24 per cent last year, with England seeing a 26 per cent rise overall.
Prostate Cancer UK noted many men are still being diagnosed too late.
The charity's assistant director of health improvement, Amy Rylance, cited a ‘huge drop’ in testing during the pandemic, with over 14,000 men missing a prostate cancer diagnosis by early 2022.
“People should definitely go to the GP if they’ve got any symptoms, but in any case, they should be taking this PSA test every year," Cllr Wernham argued.
“They should also be talking to their sons, fathers, brothers, uncles—and it’s the job of women to nag their men to do this.
"I thought right from the beginning that if I wasn’t proactive myself, it wouldn’t have been caught this early—it may have been stage 4, or I might never have been screened by the NHS.
“I could have been carrying on with this creeping malaise before it was operable.”
He did, however, remark that the treatment he received at the Northern Centre for Cancer Care was ‘fantastic’.
Cllr Wernham said his radiotherapy went ‘extremely well’ despite a ‘little bit of sunburn’ around his abdomen, but the androgen deprivation therapy pills, which inhibit testosterone production, left his legs feeling extremely weak, meaning his access to council meetings outside of Carlisle was limited.
He said this will get better after treatment though and expects to be fully clear in 2026.
He returned on November 5 and said he found it ‘quite invigorating to go back’.
But being unable to access meetings in West Cumbria due to his inability to drive longer distances caused him to reflect on the mobility requirements of the job.
“Right now, I am disabled, and if the government allowed council committee meetings to be done online I could join fully. It all has to be done face-to-face at the moment, but I could join it on Teams.”
He said this limits the role to able-bodied people with the time to travel and make physical meeting commitments.
Cllr Wernham emphasised that proactive testing was crucial to save his and other men’s lives.
“I’ve had a very close brush with death, but I’m probably going to survive because of being vigilant and not just keeping my fingers crossed that everybody’s going to be okay.”
He also thanks the council support officers and his Liberal Democrat colleagues for their professional support.
Anyone concerned about prostate cancer can use Prostate Cancer UK's online risk checker at www.prostatecanceruk.org/risk-checker, or visit www.macmillan.org.uk for more information.
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