Men's things XXXIII: Prostate Cancer Screening and UK Black Men

A sobering statistic

The statistics in the UK show that Black men are twice as likely to get prostate cancer and, consequently, twice as likely to die from the disease. In plain numbers, this means that 1 in 4 Black men will encounter the disease in their lifetime.

So, it was quite disappointing when, in November 2025, the UK National Screening Committee (NSC) advised against routine prostate cancer screening for the majority of men.

That advice included the very men most susceptible to the disease, and it was justified by concerns over the overdiagnosis and overtreatment of what might essentially be benign conditions.

Blog - Men's things XXVIII: Shame, no national prostate cancer screening

To withhold the opportunity from a cohort that is most medically affected and usually clinically ignored, especially given the tendency of such men to be culturally diffident on intimate matters, where masculinity, machismo, and sexual virility are taken to demonstrate manliness and personify manhood, was as close to unconscionable as one could get.

Renewed hope: TRANSFORM

It is therefore gratifying that, two days ago, the TRANSFORM prostate cancer screening trial received further funding. The trial, which began in autumn 2025 after being proposed in spring 2024, will now invite men at the highest risk of prostate cancer to benefit from research, early detection, and more effective treatments. [GOV.UK: Major expansion of research and treatment for prostate cancer]

All eligible Black men will be invited to participate in this initiative, which is jointly funded and supported by Prostate Cancer UK and the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR). This should accelerate community engagement and deepen it, particularly amongst Black men.

In June 2026, when stage 2 of the trial commences, all eligible Black men will be invited, including Black men who:

• are aged 45 to 74
• are resident in the UK
• have not had a PSA test or prostate MRI scan in the last 5 years

My own journey

Two years after my prostate cancer diagnosis, and twenty months after completing radical radiotherapy, the prognosis is good. My PSA is at the lowest reading it has been since I was first screened in February 2024.

I urge every Black man to take up this screening opportunity, all the more so if he carries the BRCA2 gene variant and has a family history of prostate, breast, pancreatic, or ovarian cancer.

Know the warning signs

Beyond that, a man should have his prostate checked if he gets up multiple times at night to urinate, waits a while to start, strains to begin, does not feel he has fully emptied his bladder after a visit to the toilet, or has pressing urges to pass urine.

Not every prostate enlargement is indicative of cancer, but it must be investigated by medical personnel. This is good news for Black men; now step forward and take control of your health.

Blog - Men's things XXXII: For the Boys in the Room: Why Your PSA Matters

Blog - Photons on the Prostate: Three Things I Wish I'd Known

Blog - Men's things: Prostate Cancer blogs

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A clear view of the sky in life

A house burnt down

“You know what happens when your house burns down? You get a clear view of the sky.” Olivia Benson on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, Swimming with the sharks (Season 21, Episode 15) [IMDB: Quotes].

I was about to go to bed when the twist in this episode of Law & Order: SVU was so compelling, that I had to see it to the end, and this was after I had put everything I needed in the bedroom and made to turn off the lights in the living room.

The quote above came in the closing stage of the episode after the issues had been resolved and the conspirators agreed to a deal. The protagonist on whom the storyline was based said, “I could've been a better friend. I've been thinking about it. When you arrested me. I thought it was karma. I burned a lot of bridges in my time. Hell, I burned my whole house down.”

I could be better

There is so much to unpack in that statement, and I could relate to everything she said, for it got me thinking about how I could be a better person, a better lover, a better friend, a better son, a better brother, a better parent, a better colleague, a better anything that is good, wholesome and redounds to the goodness of our humanity.

Moving on, I think about the things I probably should have done or paid more attention to, from the personal to the communal and where commission or omission has found me wanting. There is time for a lot of introspection, for there is not lost in continuous improvement, it would be nowhere near perfect, but getting better is always worthwhile. Knowing you can put the effort into it to do better is always a consideration to entertain and act on.

On bridges, even when I am tempted, I have tried as much as I can, not to burn my bridges. I learnt almost 5 years ago that bridges are not only for your use but for the use of others too. They may need that same bridge you have crossed and long-abandoned to cross the ravine over to you, that is their prerogative, but never burn those bridges, make allowances even if those allowances are taxing on your exploited magnanimity.

Life burnt down

“Hell, I burned my whole house down.” I have probably done that too many times, but what have I done with the ashes? More significantly, when I allowed HIV to ravage my body, it became full-blown AIDS presenting with life-threatening Kaposi’s sarcoma skin cancer that if the therapies did not work I was given a prognosis of 5 weeks, the long tail of cancer that wagged me to exhaustion was I lost everything.

Indeed, I lost my house among many things, and things I had acquired over decades, but rather than look around the ruins that tried to define my existence, I got a clear view of the sky, it was blue, sunny, and beautiful. My view of the sky in the context of my life was hope, I had a resolution that reverberated through my whole being, this too shall pass, and we would get to write a better story; that was the spring of possibility and life that was welling up from within me.

Prospect and possibility

In Yoruba, there is a similar saying that asks us not to despair but to be encouraged with hope and new possibilities, “Ilé ọba t'ójó ẹ̀wà ló bù si.” Using a translation of contextual equivalence rather than an exact interpretation, “You have the prospect of building something more beautiful after the royal palace burnt down.”

I guess you need to acquire the disposition not to dwell on the misfortune, no matter how catastrophic, and we have seen many that would make some hearts fail and extinguish any semblance of hope. For me, that I was alive and living meant I was ready for things ahead, a future, a world of possibilities, the need to walk through this valley of the shadow of death to new still waters and green pastures.

The comfort of knowing that trials are part of the human story, they are milestones we can do without, but if they come, we must pass them and continue on that journey that makes a better story of our experiences. Always seek and find a clear view of the sky, regardless of where you are, let the spirit of hope and encouragement take you to the place where looking back you marvel at the fact that you did not know your own strength.

He holds me up

Then I found freedom

It was one Wednesday night in early April, 36 years ago that I discovered something on campus, a livelier form of religion and devotion that put me at odds with everyone apart from the community that embraced me.

There was some turmoil I did not understand going on in my life, one in which I was at school and attended lectures without any inkling of what was going on therein. Sadly, there was no one I could explain my predicament to, but I found the distraction of student union representation and religion to keep my head as things swirled around me.

My sanity mattered more

That I was a failed student probably did not surprise me, though the reasons were quite different from what my parents and some friends thought. I was fighting a battle for my sanity whilst everything else fell apart around. Maybe, I would have liked for everything to all come together, but what is a life without the trials and tribulations that make for the quality of experience?

Indeed, I can say that now, when in the midst of it, I was both helpless and hapless, yet taking each day as it comes writing the story I can tell today. Seminal in those experiences were events quite a few and one of which was the music of the time.

It’s a new sound

I had heard some Christian music that did not suggest the singers were ready to explore the talents they had, pedestrian, uninspiring, perfunctory with words that just needed mouthing and hands clapping without a sense of rhythm like God was a boring sad and an unfunny deity of the sort that mother’s religious proclivities embraced.

Then I heard Andraé Crouch, the whole concept of praise and worship changed, the uplifting music that you will learn, sway and dance to that you were moving too well to even consider clapping. You were dancing before the Lord and even if you become naked in the process like King David once did, it did not matter. [BibleGateway 2 Samuel 6:14-23 (NIV)]

He holds me up

Too many songs that became the way by which God held me through the difficult and seemingly impossible times, for I did not see any light at the end of any tunnel, I groped in the darkness and the Lord led me through the valley of the shadow of death to new green pastures and still waters, but it was a long journey through that wilderness where I strayed at times and predators were on the prowl to devour me. I was spared, saved, and protected, to tell a better a story.

Today, from my Amazon Music subscription I decided to ask Alexa to playback Andraé Crouch and that has been on for hours, reminding of how in times of trouble, I need not be troubled, I am held by the righteous right hand of God and my unsteady gait on the rocky path is kept firm in the knowledge that I will not fall, nor will I come to any harm. We have a destination and it is good to the end. [Andraé Crouch on Amazon Music]

The timely message on Our Daily Bread – God Holds Us just reinforces the sense, feeling and assurance that it is well with my soul. I want to get my maracas out for this.

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