East Belfast Community Development Agency

The Health Development and Connections Team prepared for this Septembers older men’s open meeting by carrying out a short survey to identify which themed health priorities should be featured at the event and the questionnaires came back overwhelming in favour of information about prostate cancer.  Action Cancer and the Ulster Cancer Foundation were contacted and fortunately the UCF were able to provide a talk with relevant statistics which provoked a useful Q and A session.

Some of the information was quite shocking and some individuals in the group shared personal stories of their own HEARTACHE.  For instance in 2008, 37,051 men in the UK were diagnosed with prostate cancer, 10,168 men in the UK died from prostate cancer in 2008, Prostate cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer in men in Ireland.  However for older men you have to search for signs of progress.  They are more likely to present with later stage of disease, and to be treated in a public hospital, and they were twice as likely to die from prostate cancer as younger men.   Over the last 30 years prostate cancer rates in Great Britain have almost tripled, although much of the increase is due to increased detection through widespread use of the PSA test. More than half of prostate cancer cases are diagnosed in men aged over 70 years.  More than 80% of prostate cancer deaths occur in men aged 70 and over.   More than three-quarters of men diagnosed with prostate cancer now survive their disease beyond five years. In the 1970s it was less than a third.   The main risk factor for prostate cancer remains age but PSA testing is not usually recommended for asymptomatic men with less than 10 years’ life expectancy.   About 2 out of 3 men with a raised PSA level will not have prostate cancer.

Some of this really useful information can be accessed through the web site of Cancer Research UK.

The venue for each open meeting strives to be unusual and different that can add benefit to the event.  On this occasion the Belfast Barge was chosen because it could connect with many of the men’s working lives and offered information about history that many of them wouldn’t have been aware of before.   Barge Historian Dr. Lee Davies provided a very relaxed and informal atmosphere and coordinated the provision of welcome soup and sandwiches from the café.  All and all it was a very successful day and will be followed up with each man who attended receiving a Men & Cancer Haynes Mini Workshop Manual.  For further information contact Alan on 9045 1512 or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .