It is a sad fact that many of the men attending the Biggest Ever Blokes Lunch at the Museum of Vehicle Evolution on Friday, August 26 already have bowel or prostate cancer, but don’t know it.
If they heed the message of the day though, they will have left the event determined to get tested as quickly as possible, and early detection could make all the difference to their lives.
When those brothers, sons, fathers, grandfathers and mates are diagnosed, they will likely come in contact with the specialist cancer nurses at GV Health, Sonia Strachan, Nicole Lewis and Lynda Morrison, whose work the lunch helps fund.
Prostate cancer survivor Mick Vandermeer described the nurses as “invaluable” to him when he was going through his treatment.
Specialist prostate cancer nurse Sonia Strachan said it was a privilege to work with men and their families during their time in need, but she emphasised that regular health checks could really help outcomes if a diagnosis was positive.
“People will leave here today and they will, some of them, will go and have a health check and, unfortunately, some of them may actually be diagnosed with a bowel cancer or prostate cancer, but the earlier we get them diagnosed, then the better outcomes we're going to be looking at,” she said.
“We’re there to support men when they're diagnosed with prostate cancer, and we can be with them through their whole journey.
“So it's from diagnosis to going through their treatment, managing the side-effects after that and right through to the end of their journey.”
Ms Strachan said it could be a confronting time for men when they were facing such challenges in life.
“Especially when men are first diagnosed,” she said.
“When men come in to get their results, most often they're thinking this is going to be fine and everything's going to be okay because they have no symptoms, but that's actually what we want. We don't want men presenting with symptoms. We want them presenting early, to get that early diagnosis, so they've got the better chance of cure.”
A key message of the Biggest Ever Blokes Lunch is for men to get regular checks and not to ignore changes in their body, which Ms Strachan said had been lost a little with the restrictions and focus on COVID-19.
“I think COVID has really slowed things down because we haven't been able to get out there for events like this,” she said.
“We haven't had this for two years. We haven't been able to get out and do our community awareness, so I think it's really, really important as we come out the other side of COVID that we get out there and, you know, what the best thing is is for men to encourage their mates.
“Speak to each other and encourage each other. Get to your GP, get that regular yearly health check.”
Bowel cancer specialist nurse Ms Morrison said in the case of cancer, complacency could be a killer.
“They get their bowel cancer kits and they don't do them. They just shove them in the back corner — I'll get to that, sort of thing,” she said.
“So that's another issue, and another thing is a lot of people think bowel cancer is an old person's disease, and it's far from that.
“We have 15,000 diagnoses a year and 1500 are young people, so that's under 40.
“So it's really important that if you notice any changes in your bowel habits or anything that's lingering around for more than two weeks, you really need to go and get some help and see your GP.
“It's just encouraging each other and having that chat, and it's not behind closed doors.”