I travelled to Dunedin this week for my final post-surgery check up following the removal of my prostate a year ago. 

All appears well at this stage, but there’s still another four years of (hopefully) clear blood tests before I can really say I’m out of the woods.

It has been an interesting year. 

I guess that it is the age I am at, coupled with the way that you notice things more once they affect you, but my journey with prostate cancer has unfortunately been shared by many others I know. 

When I was waiting in Dunedin to see the registrar, another guy I know was in there waiting for his biopsy. 

At exactly the same time, another guy I am very close to was up at the clinic on the hill in Dunedin having his biopsy done. 

And as I write this, it is just over two months since my brother Bryan had his prostate removed.

So there’s a lot of it about, and yet there is still a reluctance amongst some guys I talk to, to have a test and make sure they are OK. 

I get the reluctance but blokes, we just need to get over it. 

As I have said many times, I was bloody lucky that Dr Joost picked up my cancer while I was seeing him about something else. 

I wasn’t due a blood test for a couple of years and by then, it simply would have been too late. 

And, really importantly, I had absolutely none of the symptoms that we are told to be aware of.

So guys, if you’ve got a few k’s on the clock, please talk to your GP about prostate cancer if you haven’t already. 

Chances are everything will be fine, but believe me if they aren’t and you get told you’ve got cancer, the words you really want to hear next are “but we got it early”.