Melbourne Water
Peter's story for Prostate Cancer Awareness Month
It’s Prostate Cancer Awareness Month – a key time to raise awareness for this disease that remains the most common cancer in Australian men with around 17,000 new cases annually.
Peter Cations, one of our Safety Managers has shared his compelling story around the importance of having regular check-ups with your GP – and looking after your health. #GetChecked
You can read more about Peter's story on our website and visit Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia for more information. https://bit.ly/3haUglB
Having been involved in health and safety for a
a good many years, for me to get in the routine of annual medicals was not a big deal. In June of 2018 all of a sudden I had a PSA result which was high sort of 5.1 in the scale. What I did have to do then, was a biopsy so that the surgeon
could really confirm whether I had an issue or not. Unfortunately, it did confirm that I had
Level 1 and some Level 2 cancer. I was devastated. You start thinking about, you know, where
does the future go, what can you do, what can't you do, how's it going to impact on your family. It hit me with a brick. I had to recover from fairly lengthy surgery. Getting my results
back from the surgeon, I can tell you it's 12 days of hell before you get that result and
there's a million things go through your head. So I had to go into Epworth to see the surgeon,
he sat me down, he said your results are good. I then kind of reflected on my own family. I
looked at my youngest brother, Dale, who's more likely to go on a motorbike ride than he used
to go and get medically checked, and I said “you need to have your PSA checked because we've got history here.” So he went and got checked on the 15th of December last year and he underwent
surgery on the 26th of February this year for the same thing. His cancer level was Stage 3 so there's a very strong message here about if I hadn't spoken to him, what might have been the outcome. Your best chance for either cure or treatment is early detection. It's not just about
prostate cancer, it's about bowel cancer, it's about breast cancer, it's about not doing pap smears, not
doing skin checks, you know it's a whole package of stuff. Do you want to live or do you want to die? And if you
do have a problem, detect it early, and you'll be able to get something done about it. I'm riding my
Harley, I'm out with my caravan, I'm playing in my boat, I'm doing all the things that I've always done so life goes on. The message is get checked.
#Peters #story #Prostate #Cancer #Awareness #Month
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