Husband to one, father to three, and grandfather to six, Paul Daley from Liverpool made the wise choice to take the PSA test every year after he turned 50. It was 9 years later when Paul was diagnosed with prostate cancer. Thanks to robotic surgery and a surgeon trained by The Urology Foundation, Paul has been given the chance to meet his grandchildren.
At the age of 59 Paul was cycling a leg of the Tour de France with friends. He was fit as a fiddle after months of spin classes and gym training and he had absolutely no signs of having cancer.
“I’d just come back from doing four days of Alpine hill cycling and I was as fit as I’d ever been when I got a call from my doctors to say that my PSA test had come back high. I’d not really had any significant symptoms, other than occasionally needing to go to the loo desperately, but they recommended some further tests.
“The first few tests came back as inconclusive, but a more thorough test took six tissue samples and they all came back positive for cancer. It turned out that I had a prostate the size of a Jaffa orange (much bigger than the usual size of a walnut!) and a 5 cm tumour on the prostate. When my surgeon, Mr Robin Weston, gave me the diagnosis I felt sick. He told me the cancer could have been there for about ten years without me realising it.”
“I had discussions with various doctors to see what my treatment options were, but it ultimately came down to the fact that I wanted the problem solved once and for all. The robotic surgery was definitely the best way to do that.
“After the op I felt euphoric. When you’re diagnosed with cancer you’re not in the best state and you’ve got family around you that are worried and so to wake up from the operation and to be told that you’re clear of cancer… it left me feeling euphoric.
“I had to wear a catheter for a little while and it took me a little while to get the sexual function back, so recovering from the operation did feel a bit like a roller coaster at times, but once it all settled down I started to see the bigger picture.
“The radiotherapy would have been a year of treatment and isn’t guaranteed to work. With the robotic surgery I was out of hospital 26 hours after the operation, I’d got rid of the tumour, and was on the road to recovery. Now I’m 98% back to normal.”
“I can’t speak highly enough of Mr Weston. When you’re told you need to trust someone with your life, Mr Weston is the man you trust. He made me feel so at ease and I felt like he knew exactly what he was doing. Now I go back to his surgery to help his team host talks for patients that are about to go and receive the same treatment that I did. I think they find it really helpful to hear a patient’s perspective.”
“Now I’m retired and, thanks to Mr Weston, I’ve got lots of time to spend with my little grandkids.”
Paul rid himself of cancer thanks to robotic surgery that was performed by Mr Robin Weston, a surgeon who received his robotics training through The Urology Foundation. If you would like to help us train more surgeons like Mr Weston, you can donate today.
