Ken credits his friend David for helping him catch his prostate cancer early. “He’s a smart guy and has always thoroughly researched things. He used to lecture me about regularly having a PSA test to guard against prostate cancer. He said that even if the score is low, you need to keep an eye on how quickly it’s rising from test to test. That’s what really matters.”

Ken was getting tested every year when, in 2025, a result came back with a reading of 4.9 from a previously low base. Ken’s GP advised him that it was still quite low, so he probably wouldn’t be offered any treatment on the NHS without further exploration.

“My GP suggested leaving it for three months before re-testing, but I decided that I’d rather go and see a consultant. He offered to recommend someone who works privately and said the name that was already on my mind: Mr Alan Doherty.”

It turned out that Alan had already come up as the go-to expert on prostates in various conversations that Ken had had with friends. “Alan was great from the outset, very calm and reassuring. I showed him my doctor’s notes and all the previous tests I’d had, including a letter suggesting that I may have kidney problems. 

Alan looked into my blood tests in detail and said the kidney reading was perfectly normal and nothing to worry about. He’s a urologist himself and really thorough. He didn’t just accept what others had said, he made up his own mind.”

A comprehensive series of tests

Alan sent Ken to have an MRI scan with a specialist radiographer he regularly uses. “He trusts her implicitly to know whether you have cancer or not.”

When the results unfortunately came back positive, Alan conducted a biopsy to get a more focused view. “I had it under a general anaesthetic. Friends shared that their own biopsies had left them very sore and with all sorts of problems afterwards, but I didn’t really have any pain or issues at all.” 

Concerned that Ken’s cancer may have spread beyond his prostate, Alan booked him in to see oncologist Dan Ford to talk about the possibilities of a course of radiotherapy. He also recommended a PSMA PET scan to check whether the cancer had spread. 

PSMA (Prostate Surface Membrane Antigen) is a protein that’s common in the cells of prostate cancers, so it can be used to find cancer anywhere in the body. A PSMA PET scan is often better than CT and bone scans at detecting small-volume metastases. 

Combined expertise created a smart pathway

In a following multidisciplinary meeting, the whole team looked at the biopsy results, MRI and PSMA PET scan together. Alan got in touch to say that they’d had a detailed discussion between the specialists in the team and that they thought Ken’s cancer hadn’t spread beyond the prostate, and that it was contained in one area. “Apparently, that all made me a good candidate for a treatment called focal therapy.”

Focal therapy for prostate cancer is a minimally invasive treatment that targets specific cancerous areas while preserving surrounding healthy tissue. That makes it a gentler approach than a prostatectomy, and it’s particularly effective if the cancer is thought to be contained.

“Alan recommended that I have a particular focal therapy called HIFU: High Intensity Focused Ultrasound. The position of my tumour meant that the other kind of focal therapy, called NanoKnife, wasn’t appropriate for me,” Ken remembers.

As its name suggests, HIFU uses focused ultrasound energy to heat and destroy cancerous tissue. Alan explained to Ken that in his experience, the side effects of HIFU were really minimal. “It isn’t widely available on the NHS yet outside the London area, but it’s been brilliant for me, and I was able to get treated really quickly.”

Easy decision, fast treatment

Ken had been considering ditching his health insurance as the premiums kept going up. “Luckily, I didn’t. It felt like a no-brainer to me to just have this focal therapy. There were lots of videos on YouTube which gave me confidence to go ahead, and I believe that Alan is one of the best guys for focal therapy in the country.”

“What I really like about him is that he’s always so calm and confident. When I asked him about the chances of the cancer coming back, he said: Well, if it does, we’ll just treat it again. It’s not a problem.”

The whole procedure only took about 1.5 hours under general anaesthetic. After the operation, Ken stayed in hospital for a while just to check that his bladder function was normal, then he was home the same day. 

“I was told to take it a bit easy and to take paracetamol if I felt I needed some pain relief. But I really didn’t. In fact, I didn’t have any side effects, not even blood in my urine, which Alan said can be quite common. A few months on, and nothing is different. My urinary functions are all fine. It’s been genuinely great. No stitches. No pain. No repercussions.”

Keep calm and carry on

Ken is now booked in with his GP to have regular PSA tests every four months. Alan has also recommended that he have another MRI scan in about 12 months’ time.

“The whole team has been wonderful. My friend had radiotherapy treatment for his prostate with Dan Ford, and he can’t praise him enough. In fact, I know so many people who’ve been looked after by Alan and the team, it’s like a club. Alan has really helped me to gain a little calm and perspective. I mean, age comes into it. I’m almost 79 now,” Ken shares. 

“If the cancer does come back in the future, the chances are that I’ll die with it, rather than because of it. I obviously hope it doesn’t, but I’m also ok with that.” 

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