At 48, Canberra local Paul Guest was fit, active and showing no symptoms of prostate cancer when a workplace health meeting prompted him to visit his GP for a check-up.
Now 52, Mr Guest is taking part in Dry July to raise vital funds for Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia and encourage more men to have the conversations they may otherwise avoid.
Mr Guest, a proud Wiradjuri man, completed an online men’s health assessment promoted through his workplace, Lendlease, during Men’s Health Week. After being identified as high risk, he was referred for a Prostate-Specific Antigen (PSA) blood test – a test he had never previously heard of.
“The person I spoke to gave me a referral to get a blood test for a PSA, which I had never heard of before,” Paul said.
“It came back in the higher range, and then before I knew it, I was off to see a urologist and having surgery after a few conversations.”
Mr Guest chose to undergo a prostatectomy after considering his treatment options and the potential pathways available if further treatment was needed.
“The job I do is all about risk assessments and daily safety,” he says. “So I did a bit of risk assessment and said, ‘Let’s just get rid of the prostate.'”
Mr Guest has since returned to the active lifestyle he enjoyed before diagnosis, including representative Oztag, and says he recovered well from the incontinence commonly associated with prostate cancer treatment.
“My goal was to get back to running without any leakage,” Mr Guest says.
“Within about three months, I was able to do that quite comfortably.”
Mr Guest says Dry July is giving him a positive way to give back, raise awareness and encourage more men to act on their prostate cancer health.
“Sometimes blokes are not able to, or don’t want to, talk about blokey stuff,” he said.
“When you’ve got the signs up at work about raising the money, people ask, ‘What’s it for?’ It becomes a talking point.”
Mr Guest says PCFA’s website and personal stories were important sources of information as he navigated his diagnosis and treatment.
“The website was good for me to look at, and the information and different stories were helpful,” he said.
“It’s not easy for someone to get prostate cancer, but there is certainly a lot more information now, even in just the four years since I got mine.”
Mr Guest is encouraging Australians to take part in Dry July, support PCFA participants, and help get the message out to men who may be putting off important conversations. “Do it,” he says.
“We need more support out there and more stories to get the awareness out there for blokes who are either too stubborn or too scared to talk about this stuff.”
Prostate cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer among Australian men, with around 29,000 men expected to be diagnosed each year.
To sign up for Dry July or support a PCFA participant, visit dryjuly.com.
