44-Year-Old Man’s Underwear Selfie Could Save Lives

A prostate cancer patient is taking a stand in his underwear to potentially save lives.

Kurt Jewson, 44, is currently undergoing treatment for prostate cancer. Jewson says if he had insisted upon a prostate-specific antigen (PSA) test when his doctor first dismissed his symptoms as just an infection, his health problems wouldn’t have been as severe. In an effort to encourage other men to insist upon this simple test and to raise awareness about the symptoms of prostate cancer, Jewson took to Facebook. He shared a photo of himself in his underwear to make his point.

 

His post reads:

Ok, [I] have been thinking about this for a while.

Here I am in all my tubby, pale and middle-aged (I’m 44) glory.

I’ve got a catheter, stoma ( colostomy bag ), scars where you can see them, scars where you can’t and hormone implants below my skin. I have another operation to come, and then radio and/or chemotherapy.

Why am I posting this?

Well, in the summer of 2014 I had blood in my urine. Went to the general practitioner (GP) and he said that it was probably just an infection and would clear up.

It did.

However, it wasn’t an infection. It was a symptom of prostate cancer.

If my GP had simply taken some blood and sent it off for a prostate-specific antigen (PSA) test (the test for prostate cancer. It’s not a finger up the ass… That comes later!) then we would have caught this at an early, and much more manageable stage.

There are many symptoms. I urge all the men to spend 5 minutes here: prostatecanceruk.org. It could save your life.

Prostate cancer is becoming more prevalent in “younger” men. Men our age. If you have blood in your urine, or any other symptom listed on prostate U.K.’s website, then get a blood PSA test.

Insist upon it.

If I had known earlier, then my treatment and prognosis would have been so different. As it was, my cancer was free to grow and grow for another 12 months without anyone knowing.

So, there you go.

Sorry to be so serious, but 1 in 8 of you (for that’s how many men will get prostate cancer) will bloody thank me one day!

Cheers,

Kurt

PS: Feel free to share if you want. It’s too important for me to be vain about.

Since he posted it to Facebook on Jan. 28, it’s been shared more than 209,000 times. 

The Mighty, in partnership with Fuck Cancer, is asking the following: What's the best advice you've gotten or a mantra that spoke to you following your diagnosis?  Find out how to email us a story submission here.