Athlete reveals shock at prostate cancer diagnosis

An athlete and ex-footballer has revealed his shock at being told he had prostate cancer, saying: "I just couldn't process it."

Joe Appiah was diagnosed in September 2021 and is now backing Prostate Cancer UK's Dispose with Dignity campaign for male sanitary bins to be installed everywhere, after dealing with incontinence following his operation.

He said he went to get checked after a friend urged him to - his GP was reluctant to send him for a test but the sportsman told him he was entitled as his 50th birthday had passed.

And when the results came back, Appiah said, the majority of 18 samples taken were cancerous.

He said: "I just couldn't process it... You know, one minute, I'm breaking world records, the next minute, you've got cancer."

Appiah, who is a member of Kent AC and trains at Crystal Palace, was with his wife when the consultant broke the news.

He said when they left the urologist "we just both broke down".

"I mean, all I was thinking about was my family. I've got two daughters, what am I going to tell them. How am I going to tell them?"

After he was operated on Appiah faced incontinence.

He said: "Once you've had to get your prostate removed, or you have treatment for your cancer, there are side effects... [which] are not pleasant.

"It's horrible. It was once described to me by a consultant as like turning the taps on."

Now he is backing Prostate Cancer UK's Dispose with Dignity campaign, which wants sanitary bins for men installed everywhere.

The charity's support services head, Nick Ridgman, said: "A lot of organisations, a lot of workplaces, businesses still don't have these bins in place.

"So that's why our work continues to try and make the importance of this really well understood."

Now, he said, the charity was encouraging the Health and Safety Executive to update its guidelines on providing facilities in workplaces.

"Returning to [work] is a big aspect of a lot of people's recovery," Ridgman said.

"I think around half of diagnoses of prostate cancer now, maybe even more than half, are actually happening in working-age men."

Appiah said men were being prevented from leading their lives because of this.

"We need to normalise this for men," he added.

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