As he stood up to make his speech at the Kyabram Men’s Longest Lunch last week, Keith Naylor said he felt nervous.
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A school teacher for over 20 years, Mr Naylor said he asked Longest Lunch committee chairman Nick Curnow if he could speak at the event and share his story.
Last Friday, he stood up in front of 170 people at the event and told the story of his journey with prostate cancer.
Mr Naylor visited his GP in early 2019 and said he had no symptoms of prostate cancer.
“I had no sign of it,” Mr Naylor said. “It was 11 years since I’d had a PSA (prostate specific antigen blood test) – you should be having it every two years.”
His doctor referred him to get tested, and the news that came back was not good. His cancer diagnosis was confirmed.
“Anyone living with cancer just knows it’s a horrible feeling,” he said.
“It’s sh*t knowing you’ve got cancer.
“It was just a rollercoaster of finding out whether I had it bad, how far it had gone and what the possible treatments were.”
Mr Naylor said they discussed the treatment options before opting for surgery in Melbourne.
The operation went ahead, but the COVID-19 pandemic meant Mr Naylor’s wife was not allowed to visit him in hospital. Instead, he had to rely on the support from his nurses.
“The nurses are unreal,” he said.
“It was the first week of COVID, so my wife couldn’t come in. I had the operation and the only people there were the nurses.
“I had two nurses looking after me and they were unbelievable.”
While his wife was unable to be with him in hospital, Mr Naylor said her support during his cancer journey had been vital and phenomenal.
“You go to bed every night and you don’t sleep,” he said. “You just have got to talk to somebody and sit down with them and have them there for you.”
Friday’s event was the seventh edition of the Kyabram Longest Lunch, with funds raised going directly to the Kyabram District Health Service.
Over its previous six editions the event had raised more than $73,000 for the hospital, with this year’s fundraising figure to be finalised next week.
Mr Naylor said events such as the Longest Lunch were crucial to the community and would help get the conversation around men’s health going.
“These people will go out and they’ll talk to their mates, and they’ll bring up things like mental health or colon cancer,” he said.
“And it’s a matter for everyone here to go out and be careful with their mental health and other screenings to make sure they haven’t got it.”
He said raising money for KDHS was what the event was all about.
“We have to get these programs at the hospital,” he said.
“Kyabram hospital is getting better and better and better, and it’s providing more and more services – but we’re not a complete package yet.
“And that’s what these events are aimed at – providing a better health service for everyone.”
Mr Naylor implored people to take their health seriously and get tested.
“Get out there and check on your health, take your tests,” he said. “From 50 up there is a good chance that you’re going to have it, and you need to have your PSA.”
“If you’ve got a family history of it, it’s even more important that you talk to your family and go and have a test.
“Women do a great job of it getting breast screening and pap smears – we [men] don’t think about it.
“Make sure you get your annual checks, make sure you talk to people – whether it’s on the golf course or anywhere else – talk to people about your health.”
According to the Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia over 17,000 Aussie men are diagnosed with the disease each year, making it the most common type of male cancer in the country.
While prostate cancer has one of the highest survival rates of all cancers, sadly over 3000 men die from it each year.
Like what Mr Naylor experienced, there are sometimes no symptoms during the early stages of prostate cancer.
Later stage symptoms of prostate cancer can include feeling the frequent or sudden need to urinate, finding it difficult to urinate, discomfort when urinating, finding blood in urine or pain in the lower back, upper thighs or hips.