Dave’s 10-week journey from radical prostatectomy to 10k charity walk
Dave’s route to finding Alan Doherty and getting the radical prostatectomy he needed wasn’t straightforward. “In fact, it was all quite frustrating to begin with,” he shares.
Dave was just 56 when he started to experience concerning urinary issues. The first specialist consultant he saw sent him for a CT scan, which showed that he had an enlarged prostate. “He said it was common in men my age. He prescribed two different medications which he said would shrink the prostate and the muscle around it, taking pressure off the urethra.”
That worked well for six months, but then the symptoms returned: “I was back to square one. I decided to see the specialist again, and he put me on a third medication and recommended that I have an MRI scan, just to check nothing else was going on. The MRI results came back showing a PI-RADS lesion scoring 4 on my prostate.”
Dave was determined to stay positive through further investigations that included a transperineal biopsy under local anaesthetic. “When I finally secured an appointment with the consultant to get the results, I struggled to get straight answers. He seemed to be skirting around the issue.”
When Dave pressed the consultant, he eventually told him that he did have prostate cancer. “I called my wife in shock. For some reason, I hadn’t expected that news at all - my PSA level had only been 1.4 when I’d started getting tested.”
The consultant handed Dave a bundle of leaflets, and he left feeling frustrated by how slow and confusing the journey had been so far. “He told me to think about what kind of treatment I’d like to go for. For now, he suggested ‘active surveillance’ as the cancer was graded as T1C N0M0 Gleason 3+4 - so low risk. He said time was on my side. I drove home in a daze after hearing the news nobody wants to hear.”
Researching a better path
Despite a difficult start, Dave worked hard to stay positive. “I thought, I’m going to get on top of this. I’m not going to let this mentally beat me and pull me down!” He started researching prostate cancer and the pros and cons of the different types of surgery and treatments, as well as looking into other specialist urologists and surgeons in the field.
His cousin’s husband recommended Alan Doherty. “He’d had prostate cancer a few years before and told me that Mr Doherty was the best surgeon he had ever met - direct, approachable and a really lovely guy. After everything I’d been through, that was exactly what I needed.”
“Luckily, my insurers let me switch my care,” Dave remembers. “The first time my wife Debbie and I met Mr Doherty, I was quite emotional. It was a surreal experience. I’d watched all his videos and read the reviews, and I felt so relieved to finally be sitting in front of him.”
Mr Doherty had read all Dave’s notes. “He said I didn’t have a large prostate and shouldn’t be on all this medication. He also said I had prostate cancer in two places, and it was at stage 2, not stage 1. I had been misdiagnosed.”
Mr Doherty talked Dave through a possible range of treatments including minimally invasive HIFU. “After all my research, I’d decided to have the radical prostatectomy. I just wanted to have the cancer taken away. When I broke the cancer news to my son Callum, he agreed that nipping it in the bud now rather than risking something worse happening in the future was best.”
“The potential side effects of the operation far outweighed the consequences in my mind, and I was reassured by Alan’s success rates. Alan liked that I’d done my research and saw I’d clearly made my mind up,” Dave shares. “The way he spoke to me made me feel so safe and at ease.”
Dave had a big holiday to Asia already booked, which Mr Doherty advised him to go ahead and enjoy. He said, “Go and have fun. When you come back, we’ll take care of this cancer.”
Knowledgeable care and support from Mary Kirkham
11 months after his positive diagnosis, Dave was booked in for an open radical prostatectomy with Mr Doherty at HCA UK’s flagship Harborne Hospital in Birmingham. Before he was admitted, BPS clinical nurse specialist Mary Kirkham explained everything that would happen, step by step.
“Mary was amazing. I think her phone call was the key to the whole thing for me. She chatted with me and my wife over the phone for about an hour and a half. She told us exactly what was going to happen step by step, so when I went in for the procedure on the actual day, I felt so prepared. The hospital was fantastic. The anaesthetist was lovely. Thanks to Mary, I knew what to expect and wasn’t worried at all. I felt I was in the best possible hands.”
The operation went smoothly, and Mr Doherty checked in on Dave every day in hospital. He was discharged with a catheter after five days. “I had clear instructions for recovery, including what to drink, how much to exercise and how to care for my wound.”
“I did have one blip. When I got home, I developed a urine infection,” Dave remembers. “I got straight on the phone to Mary, and for speed and ease she advised me to go and see my local GP immediately. They gave me antibiotics which cleared the infection. It was all quickly sorted, and I knew Mary was there for any concerns I had.”
The 10k ‘March for Men’
For the last couple of years, Dave had been focused on powering through the experience with positivity. “But after the operation things got a bit overwhelming. That was when I felt most emotional. I called Mary, and she said that was normal. I’d been surviving on adrenaline for so long. I also just had this strong feeling that everyone had been so brilliant to me. The hospital has been superb. Mr Doherty was the best possible surgeon for my condition. I felt so lucky and strongly wanted to give something back.”
Dave came across Prostate Cancer UK’s Facebook page while recuperating and found their online support group helpful. He decided to sign up for their ‘March for Men’ fundraising walk with his wife and son, which was taking place only ten weeks after his radical prostatectomy.
“We opted for the 10k route, and it gave me something to push for and a focus in my recovery. The three of us completed it, raising over £3,500 for the charity. It was a fantastic day, and to complete it with my wife and son was brilliant, as we had all been through it together. We felt part of something, and I felt like I’d really managed to give something back.”
Now Dave only has a tiny bit of incontinence and, with a little prescribed medication to support his erectile function, everything is back to working well.
“In my eyes, Alan is the best in the business. I hope my story gives men like me a little hope if they’re going through tough times too. I know we all deal with things differently, but staying positive really helped me get through this, and the love and support from my family, friends and work colleagues was priceless.”
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