By Amy Anderson
Andy Irvine from Derbyshire was diagnosed with Prostate cancer when he was 54 – a simple home test he was bullied into buying by his wife potentially saved his life.
Andy says:
In the summer of 2002,life had seldom been better. I was enjoying the benefits of early retirement at the age of 54, following 31 increasingly high-stress years in the computer industry. Both physically and mentally I had never felt so good for a long, long time and my wife and I were preparing to set off for what was to turn out to be an idyllic sun-filled holiday in a Portugese villa lying in the foothills of the Algarve.
A couple of weeks before we were due to depart, my wife read an article in our daily paper about the Homechec prostate test kit and talked me into sending off for it, as a “sensible precaution for a man of my age”. It arrived just before we were due to go on holiday, so I stored it in our fridge, where it remained until I stumbled across it again a couple of weeks after our return. Trying it out one evening, I was slightly disturbed to see that it was apparently showing a strong indication of a prostate disorder. Doubting the validity of the test, (since I still had absolutely no symptoms of prostate trouble) I decided to put my mind at ease by asking my GP to carry out a blood test at the earliest opportunity.
Far from putting my mind at ease this gave a PSA reading of over 30 which led to a flurry of further tests, scans and biopsies which confirmed the presence of early prostate cancer in my system. This was treated with hormone injections and a course of radiotherapy at the wonderful Christies in Manchester in the spring of 2003.
Six months later I had my first monthly remission test which returned a PSA reading of 0.8, to the delight of both my medical consultant and myself.
I have no doubt that, without my inspired wife’s insistence that I buy a Homechec kit, and the ease with which the kit can used, I would still be unaware of the presence of my prostate cancer today. It is the best investment I have made in the last fifty years and it potentially saved my life.
On 23rd January 2004 I had the results of my first year’s remission test. The medical consultant who I deal with is a leading UK figure in the treatment of prostate cancer and he was delighted (as was I!) with the latest PSA reading of 0.8. He also remarked that I was the first person he had met in all his years of practice who had been referred to him as a result of carrying out my own tests, in my case by using the Homechec product.”
Last updated: 30 May 2006
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