Paul Bain - Prostate Cancer Foundation Long Run - video Dailymotion

Royalla dad of three is living with prostate cancer and working to help make the disease history

Transcript

00:00The first year I was diagnosed, I was obviously made aware of the long run, which is part

00:08of Prostate Cancer Awareness Month, September.

00:10I think I was only six weeks post-surgery at that point, so I signed up, I think for

00:1672Ks, which is the standard sign-up.

00:18My wife and I raised some money, which was heaps of fun.

00:21I think I walked most of those Ks that year.

00:24But yeah, each year I've just decided that it is, and especially since we moved out here,

00:29it is just a really good excuse to, I guess, get motivated.

00:34The weather starts to warm up a little bit, spring's magnificent out here.

00:37So not long after I turned 50, my wife encouraged me to have a check-up with my local GP, not

00:42something that I'd done a lot of.

00:45Went in for what I thought was a normal set of bloods, wasn't sick or feeling ill in any

00:49way.

00:50Got called back by my GP a couple of days later to discuss the results, and turned out

00:55he'd, unbeknownst to me, done a PSA test, which tests your prostate health, and had

01:00discovered mine to be abnormally high.

01:02The next couple of weeks, I guess, was a bit of a whirlwind, led to the discovery of a

01:08very aggressive form of prostate cancer.

01:12So it came as a huge shock to myself and the family, obviously.

01:16In sort of a month or so, I'd had a radical prostatectomy to have the prostate removed.

01:21So very tricky to deal with, especially when your head isn't around sort of being ill in

01:27any way, and I presented asymptomatically, so no symptoms whatsoever, which was another

01:33anomaly, I guess.

01:34Fast forward a couple of years, and I suppose a year and a half ago, things started to move

01:42again, which was indicative of the cells being present somewhere else in my body.

01:46It's a situation probably for us now, where we deal with these instances as they appear,

01:54and apply the required treatment, and get on with life.

01:57Yeah, it gives me a great opportunity to do some cool stuff, and some advocacy, and raise

02:02some money for the Prostate Cancer Foundation.

02:04Found a level of comfort in talking about some of the really tricky side effects, particularly

02:10relative to the surgery and some of the treatments, some of the things that men typically don't

02:15like talking about.

02:17So I just thought I could at least become a voice, and got to know the crew at the Prostate

02:22Cancer Foundation really well, and got a really good understanding of some of the incredible

02:26things that they do, and the support that they provide.

02:29So yeah, it's just been a bit of a passion of mine, I guess, to be comfortable enough

02:33to speak out, and to really help other men understand that there is an incredible support

02:38network out there, and then at the same time, do every little bit that I can to help raise

02:42some money for the PCFA, who do some incredible work.