Certified Pinc and Steel senior physiotherapist Shannon Fisken, who works for Body in Motion in Tauranga. She and her team have raised more than $10,000 for Dry July so far.
When Mark Wootton was told his biopsy was positive for prostate cancer, he thought the samples had been mixed up.
“I thought, ‘You’ve got to be kidding, it’s somebody else, isn’t it? It can’t be right’.”
The 64-year-old father-of-four and sales representative said he was regularly doing blood tests to screen for the cancer but was feeling no adverse symptoms when he got the shock diagnosis.
“My PSA [Prostate Specific Antigen] level had crept up a little bit ... so she [his doctor] referred me on to a specialist who did the checks after that and ended up taking a biopsy and then came back with positive for cancer.”
The Whakatāne man is sharing his story as data from Te Whatu Ora Health New Zealand shows more than 700 patients have been diagnosed with prostate cancer in the Bay of Plenty and Lakes regions over the past five years.
According to the foundation, the test looks for raised levels of a protein in the blood called PSA, which is made by prostate cells. A PSA level that is above the norms for someone’s age indicates there could be a problem with the prostate.
After his PSA test and then the positive biopsy, he was given treatment options including radiotherapy, radiation and surgery.
“When you’re in that situation, it comes down to individual choice and for me, I didn’t want to fill my body up with hormones and stuff like that so I chose to go down the path of just having the operation.”
He said he had surgery at Tauranga Hospital a few months after his diagnosis. He has since had five “clear” tests.
“As far as the surgeon’s concerned, he thinks I’m as far as I could be positively clear of cancer. But he did say to me ‘we dodged a bullet’.”
Wootton said he has been married for 43 years with four children and 10 grandchildren and has a “very supportive family”.
“It does affect your family a lot and it does affect your relationship, a lot like all cancers I guess.”
He said his daughter put together an exercise programme for him prior to his operation which “made a big difference”.
His message to other men to catch it early was to get regular tests, keep asking questions, and get a second opinion if they were not happy.
Wootton’s experience led him to start a prostate cancer support group in Whakatāne about a year ago for other men and their partners.
“I wanted to help and give back to people who might be in the same position as me.”
He contacted the Prostate Cancer Foundation, which helped him start it.
His idea was to have “a cup of tea” with people who had also been diagnosed, but he said it had grown from there.
Between eight and 15 people typically attended the meetings held every two months at the Eastern Bay Primary Health Alliance on Lovain St. Attendees would share their stories and sometimes hear speakers from the health sector.
Te Whatu Ora Health New Zealand data supplied under the Official Information Act showed 539 people were diagnosed with prostate cancer in the Bay of Plenty health region between May 2018 and April 2023.
In that period, 191 had surgery and 678 had radiotherapy treatment for prostate cancer.
In the Lakes region, 179 people were diagnosed, 70 had surgery and 209 had radiotherapy in the same period.
Eight patients were on the combined Bay of Plenty and Lakes treatment waitlist and all had a treatment plan.
The information said men were given a date for treatment once they had made a decision to proceed. For example, there needed to be a minimum six-week gap after a prostate biopsy before surgery.
Patients who returned a biopsy showing they were low risk were offered “active surveillance”. Patients who were intermediate or high risk were offered a consultation with a urologist to discuss having a prostatectomy and a radiation oncologist to discuss “external beam radiotherapy,” the information said.
Tauranga prostate cancer support group coordinator Ian Armstrong said he was diagnosed four years ago.
At the time, Armstrong said he felt like there was no support for men with prostate cancer.
After speaking to the Prostate Cancer Foundation, Armstrong helped set up a support group in Tauranga, which has been running since mid-2021.
The group meets at Club Mount Maunganui on the first Thursday of every month at 6pm. Partners were welcome, he said.
Armstrong, a Prostate Cancer Foundation board member, said 25 to 35 people typically attended each meeting. Some nights were just a “catch-up” and dinner, but sometimes they had health professionals speak.
Cancer Society supportive care nurse Rozanne Young said treatment worked best if the cancer was caught early.
“We encourage men to become aware of any changes in their body and to talk to their GP about any concerns. We would like to promote men to have that talk because it shouldn’t be awkward.”
For those diagnosed, speaking with others in a similar situation would help “lessen the load,” Young said.
“We are here to support you because no one should face cancer alone.”
Team raises $10k - and counting - through Dry July
Certified Pinc and Steel senior physiotherapist Shannon Fisken, who works for Body in Motion in Tauranga, and physiotherapist Laura Lyons. Photo / Alex Cairns
Dry July is an annual challenge where participants give up alcohol for a month while raising funds for cancer organisations in New Zealand. This year, it is supporting three cancer support charities: the Prostate Cancer Foundation of New Zealand, Pinc and Steel Cancer Rehab Foundation of New Zealand, and Look Good Feel Better.
Certified Pinc and Steel senior physiotherapist Shannon Fisken, who works for Body in Motion in Tauranga, said she and her team had so far raised $10,494 for Dry July.
Fisken said she was “blown away” by how much people had donated.
“That pays for the group rehab classes that we do and so lots of the prostate cancer blokes do those.
“I see every week the benefit that this money goes to those patients. They just get so much out of the group classes in terms of social support from other people going through a similar experience.”
Prostate Cancer Foundation chief executive Peter Dickens acknowledged the assistance provided by Dry July funds to patients and their families through its nationwide network of “Prost-FIT” exercise classes, as well as counselling services and welfare grants.
Megan Wilson is a health and general news reporter for the Bay of Plenty Times and Rotorua Daily Post. She has been a journalist since 2021.
