Lads' holiday joke prompts brothers to discover and treat prostate cancer 12-weeks apart
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Two brothers underwent life-saving prostate cancer treatment within months of each other after a joke during a lads' holiday led them to get tested. Keith Powell, 68, had a radical prostatectomy just months after his younger brother, Alan, 66, underwent the same procedure.
The siblings even had their surgeries at the same Surrey hospital with the same surgeon and feel fortunate to have caught the cancer before it spread. Retired gas and heating engineer Alan decided to get tested following a casual comment about how often 'men of a certain age' visit the loo during a lads' holiday.
Alan explained that the joke led him to get a PSA test - a blood test that can help diagnose prostate issues. Alan said: "I had no symptoms at all and considered myself to be a reasonably active man, so what happened next was a bit of a shock." Alan, who is expecting his first grandchild later this year, later had an MRI scan and a biopsy before receiving his dreaded cancer diagnosis.
READ MORE: Foster mum crushed boy, 10, to death sitting on him after he threatened to call police to report child abuse. Keith, who had previously battled skin cancer, was spurred to get tested after his younger brother Alan's unexpected diagnosis, which led to the discovery of his own similar condition.
Consultant Urological Surgeon Wissam Abou-Chedid performed both operations, with Keith expressing gratitude for his brother's impromptu decision to get checked: "Ahead of my surgery I was quite confident as I had been out for dinner with Alan who told me exactly what to expect. If he hadn’t decided to get tested, neither of us would have known we had cancer. I feel very fortunate that we both caught it before it had spread.".
