Sunderland man thanks GP whose swift actions saved his life in cancer fight

A Sunderland man faces lifelong treatment for prostate cancer.

But David Taylor, 69, feels 'incredibly lucky' because his GP's swift actions saved him.

"I owe him a massive debt and the way I have been treated by the NHS has been wonderful," said the retired Civil Service risk assessor who lives in the Barnes area and whose story was shared by Prostate Cancer UK.

David's cancer fight began in early 2014 when he visited his doctor who ordered a blood sample. PSA is a blood test that measures the amount of prostate specific antigen in the blood.

He said: “I knew something was seriously wrong when he rang at 5.30pm a couple of nights later and asked me to call in to the surgery first thing the following day.

"He told me my PSA was 57, ordered another blood sample, examined me and made an appointment at my local hospital.”

Cancer was too advanced to operate

Within a week he'd had a biopsy which confirmed the bad news.

A couple of weeks later David had a bone scan and then an MRI. Fortunately they confirmed the cancer hadn't spread beyond the bed of his prostate but that it was too advanced to operate.

His consultant prescribed lifelong hormone treatment, Zoladex, and a course of radiotherapy. 

“As I hadn’t had any obvious symptoms the news came as an enormous surprise, and we were all devastated as we are a really close-knit family."

20 doses of radiotherapy

He had 20 doses of radiotherapy, including on his 61st birthday after which he ziplined to celebrate.

Following David’s radiotherapy his PSA came down to 0.003 and has stayed around those levels ever since.

The Zoladex injections did lead to side effects but David said: "As I knew they were keeping me alive I was obviously willing to put up with these side effects.

Signed off by his Macmillan nurse

“The problem I sometimes had when urinating hasn’t gone away, so it appears it was a fortunate coincidence for me and my cancer may well not have been diagnosed until too late.

"I know this is all too common and another reason why regular PSA checks should be much more readily available.”

Following six monthly checks with his Macmillan nurse, early in 2020, David was signed off by his Macmillan nurse to his GP with his last PSA reading 0.0007.

'It's vital that research continues into this horrible disease'

He said: “I was delighted, although I know there will always be a possibility that my treatment will stop working and I’ll need to seek an alternative, so it’s vitally important, for me and all men, that  research continues into this horrible disease that is affecting more and more men."

The grandfather of three continued: “In spite of all that's happened I feel incredibly lucky to have had a GP who acted straight away and then had fantastic care and state of the art treatment. I'm now retired, enjoy travelling and my three grandchildren."

David has done two of Jeff Stelling's charity walks and is planning to take on March the Month, saying: "I’ll be doing 11,000 steps every day and have been getting in some practice recently."

SAFC star faced his own fight

His story comes just days after the Echo told how SAFC star Gary Bennett needs check-upsevery three-to-six-months after being diagnosed himself.

Gary told the Echo: "I did not have any symptoms and that is something we are trying to make men aware of. I was lucky enough to get the diagnosis early."

More information about prostate cancer is available from the Prostate Cancer UK website.

People can also find out more at Cancer Research UK.