Tag Archives: prostate cancer

A Quin-based patient advocate has pledged to continue monitoring government plans to introduce legislation extending medical cards to any patient with a terminal diagnosis of up to two years. John Wall, who is living with prostate cancer, got a terminal diagnosis in July 2017. In March 2018, he travelled to University Hospital Gasthuisberg, Leuven in Belgium, and admitted without this treatment in this public hospital, he wouldn’t be still alive. The air traffic controller said there is also need to make the application process to obtain a medical card and information provided to patients more user friendly. “The campaign doesn’t stop. I will be taking a break, but there is a body of work to be completed in terms of the application process for medical cards and the information that has to be provided to patients and their families.” John recalled the late Laura Brennan, Ennis, who campaigned extensively to increase the take up of the HPV vaccine, before she …

MARK Bowers was shocked when consultant urological surgeon, Garrett Durkan looked him in the eye in the Mid-Western Radiation Oncology Centre, Limerick and confirmed he had prostate cancer. While no one is prepared for this devastating news, the fact that 17 months earlier an ultrasound test revealed a cyst was benign, made it an even more bitter pill for the 52-year-old to swallow. Looking back at that day last October, the Killaloe man felt it was akin to “an icy hand grabbing your heart and squeezing it”. Three previous Prostate Specific Antigen (PSA) tests had shown elevated antigens but none of them were considered to be at a dangerous level. Right from the start of his diagnosis, he was assured all the way that he would be fine, as the cancer was detected in its early stages. His brother-in-law in Canada, who is in his early 70s, is dying from prostate cancer. Mark believes his brother-in-law, who ironically nursed people …