Getting up to urinate 2-3 times a night became a real annoyance, so I went to the GP who referred me to the urologist for tests- but nothing could have prepared me for the diagnosis of prostate cancer. I felt numb, couldn’t concentrate and felt anxious all the time, my family didn’t take the news well either they became concerned and stressed also.

The options for treatment were only partially explained to me through the NHS, the options recommended for me were:

• Surgery
• Radiotherapy
• Brachytherapy

Radiotherapy was apparently my best option and would have lasted 7.5weeks after 3months of hormone treatments. I started to research alternative forms of treatments due to the high risk of side-effects associated with these treatments and yet I feel the side-effect subject wasn’t explained well during the NHS process.

I heard about proton therapy from a letter in the national press from a patient, I noticed immediately the reduced risk of side-effects and the shorter treatment time. I decided to go ahead with proton therapy and received 21 fractions of treatment but was also put on hormones, the hormones gave me hot flushes but apart from that, no other side-effects especially from the proton therapy itself.

Treatment exceeded expectations for me, the centre was so clean with reliable equipment and the staff were marvellous. I didn’t feel too ill from the treatment and managed to go out and explore the city of Prague.

I am still on hormone treatment but my future now looks positive, once the hormone therapy ends I’ll be back to being healthy like I was before Prostate cancer.

Disclaimer: This patient is happy to share their story but would like to protect their identity.