Poster Puts Men on Alert

By Catherine Vonledebur

DON’T just sit there – be prostate aware. That’s the message of a new health campaign featuring a man in his Y-fronts.

The campaign has been launched by Prostate UK, a small charity fighting all prostate diseases.

Brigadier John Anderson, of Prostate UK, said: "With our awareness campaign we want to capture the imagination of UK men and their families and alert them to all forms of prostate disease.

"At Prostate UK we recognise the suffering caused not only by prostate cancer, but BPH and prostatitis too."

Prostate cancer is the most common male cancer in the UK.

Every year, more than 30,000 men are diagnosed with prostate cancer and 10,000 men die from it.

West Midlands Cancer Intelligence Unit 2006 reported an average number of 179 cases of prostate cancer a year in Coventry between 2002 and 2004.

According to Warwickshire Primary Care Trust, 27 per cent of deaths in the county are from cancer and 12 per cent of those deaths are from prostate cancer. Two of the lesser known prostate diseases are:

Benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) – a non-cancerous enlargement of the prostate affecting nearly half of men over 50. It often causes extreme discomfort when urinating.

Prostatitis – a painful inflammation of the prostate, usually of bacterial origin, causes significant suffering in younger men.

Kate Holmes, nurse specialist and trustee of Prostate UK said: "Men owe it to themselves to learn about the danger signs."

Leader of Coventry City Council Cllr Ken Taylor raised more than pounds 12,000 for Prostate Cancer Support Association when he was Lord Mayor in 2002-2003.

He said: "We have to raise awareness of it as there is a very high death rate in the UK. It’s all down to the fact that men aren’t going for check-ups."

For more information visit www.prostateuk.org

BLOOD TEST CLUE

MOST men with early prostate cancer have no symptoms at all.

Symptoms include: Needing to urinate more often, especially at night and lower back pain.

IF your GP is concerned that you might have a prostate problem, they will take a blood sample from you. This sample will be sent to a laboratory to test for PSA (Prostate Specific Antigen). The PSA test is not a test for cancer but can show that there isa problem with the prostate.

A study by researchers at the University of California recently found that pomegranate juice had many positive effects on men dealing with prostate cancer.

(c) 2007 Coventry Evening Telegraph. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.