My condition developed after a lifetime of relative freedom from serious illness. I had almost never had to approach a doctor except socially (in my early academic career I trained with them). I played good standard tennis until I was 61 and could still enjoy pretty vigorous bush walking.

However, at 63 (1993) I had two real bouts of illness, produced firstly by a hiatus hernia and secondly by developing osteo-arthritis. I learnt to live with the former and received almost miraculous relief from laser acupuncture for the latter. With hindsight, I have to say that if prostate malfunction had crossed someone’s mind at this juncture, they might have been rewarded. Only the acupuncturist thought to ask about “waterworks” and I could honestly say I had no problems.

Towards the end of 1994 I was developing real trouble. Considerable pain down my left leg was confirmed, after referral to an orthopaedic surgeon, to be the result of a spinal disc lesion. This diagnosis, combined with my known arthritis, set me down a path of exercise which I instinctively felt was doing me no great good. My frequent complaints about leg pain finally led to me citing an earlier C.T. scan which had thrown up an ill-defined shadow which, it was suggested, might profit from an M.R.I.

This was organised and the results were alarming. Some kind of cancerous condition with bony metastices was involved and it was time to call in the oncology people at The Newcastle Mater Hospital. This was August 1995.

Now it was party time with a vengeance. Many of you will know the drill: a further C.T. , bone scans, X-rays galore and a biopsy. I suggest my oncologist must have tossed a coin whether to admit me or call a good undertaker. My bone picture was formidable; my P.S.A. reading was 3,000 and my Gleason score was 8.

I was slammed into GnRH agonist therapy, with flutamide and 5 days of radiation. The effect was dramatic; within a few weeks the P.S.A. readings started to plummet and many months of sheer agony became a memory.

I was told I could look forward cautiously to 12 to 18 months survival time. By this year I had achieved two seemingly impossible goals; age 70 and A.D. 2000. That’s over 4 and a half years to date, with a P.S.A. between 0.1 and 0.4 for most of that time.

I am still remarkably active, which I put down to a positive attitude fuelled by a strong desire and ability to understand my therapy, and a series of exercises of my own design. These, I reasoned, were directed towards age 70, the water-shed beyond which life was busy enough attending to geriatric mishaps to beside-tracked by unnecessary intruders like cancers! On the whole, my cardio-vascular system seems to agree.

You will appreciate that I have reservations about certain aspects of my therapy but I unconditionally tip my lid to The Mater and the guy who developed the GnRH agonist therapy, with whom I have corresponded.

Joe Moss, M.A

3 Small Street

MAYFIELD (Newcastle)