Prostate  cancer is one of the most easily cured — but for Kevin Logan, diagnosis came too late and his disease is incurable. Now he is campaigning to save other men’s lives, as he tells MARION SAUVEBOIS

TWO to five years… Every morning this death sentence hangs over Kevin Logan, an intolerable reminder of his numbered days.

And yet, each clawed back minute or fleeting hour spent with his three daughters is a significant victory over the incurable prostate cancer which will eventually claim him.

“It has been nearly a year and I feel fine - 97 per cent of people with advanced prostate cancer survive the first year so I have a good chance," he said.

"Sometimes you have an ache or pain and you think, ‘What is that?’ You are always on edge. But you just have to crack on. You have to set yourself goals, every day.”

Unlike many other types, prostate cancer has a promising survival rate and can be easily cured if picked up in the early stages. But by the time the 56-year-old was diagnosed with metastatic prostate cancer in June 2015, the disease had gained so much ground, it was too late to save him.

It all started at the end of 2014, when Kevin noticed tinges of blood in his urine. He was referred to The Ridgeway Hospital with suspected kidney stones but a battery of tests came back negative.

He pushed the incident out of his mind until, in April 2015, he was admitted to A&E with severe abdominal pain after falling violent sick at work. This time he showed clear signs of kidney stones, doctors insisted, and he was sent home with painkillers and anti-inflammatories.

He slowly recovered over the Easter weekend but was soon sent back to hospital for further tests. There was no mistaking it this time, his prostate was enlarged.

Kevin went calmly through the motions, agreeing to surgery to stop the swollen gland from putting pressure on his urethra. Little did he know that a biopsy carried out during the procedure would reveal the worst. He had advanced prostate cancer and the disease had spread to his bones. It was incurable. Kevin was beside himself.

“It was a sleepless night until we saw the oncologist the next day,” recalls Kevin, from Priory Vale.

“My mother was diagnosed with brain tumour and the prognosis was three months; I thought, ‘That’s it, it’s like mum’. When you hear you’re at the highest stage of cancer possible, things rush through your mind. I thought it was over.”

When the oncologist explained the survival rate was two to five years however, he felt unspeakable relief.

“It’s the uncertainty that’s the hardest to deal with,” confides Kevin, who owns Reading-based firm GCS Recruitment.

“I breathed a sigh of relief when I found out. When you know how much time you have, you can put your life in order.”

Breaking the news to his adult daughters, Georgina, who lives in the United States, Charley and Jo – a former Miss Wiltshire - proved far more daunting than the agonising weeks of intense chemotherapy and hormone treatment which would follow, he admits.

It soon dawned on him that broaching the “C word” with friends and colleagues was not going to be an easy task either; but not for the reasons he imagined.

“It’s strange, it’s all happening to you but you find yourself having to reassure others,” his voice trails off.

“My approach was to tell everybody. It’s part of the healing process. I’m quite matter-of-fact about these things. But I’ve met people who can’t even say the word cancer. They say it’s the ‘Big C’ but no, it’s the small ‘c’. It’s odd: people put their cancer face on, they speak to you in whispered tones, they go to touch you gently on the arm as if they’re going to hurt you. They don’t know how to approach you. I just said, ‘I’m not radioactive’.”

Days before he was due to start chemotherapy and a pioneering new hormone treatment, set to prolong his life by nearly two years, doctors discovered the cancer had not only spread to his pelvis but his spine.

He went ahead with treatment regardless and, although drained by chemotherapy, he muddled through determined not to allow a single day to pass him by.

Throughout treatment, he took every opportunity to share his experience with other men, using his journey as a cautionary tale.

He never intended to go any further than the occasional chat until, on his advice, a friend requested to be tested and was diagnosed with prostate cancer. Thankfully the disease was caught just in time.

This prompted Kevin to spread his vital massage and encourage mass screenings. The Freemason reached out to lodges across the district and last month set up a screening day at the Masonic Hall in Old Town.

The event was backed by the Graham Fulford Charitable Trust, which provided nurses to carry out blood tests designed to measure levels of prostate specific antigen (PSA) and detect early prostate cancer - 175 men turned up and 10 per cent of them showed potential signs of prostate cancer.

Bolstered by the shocking results, Kevin is now in the process of setting up his own charity The Loganberry Trust to deliver free screenings across the region and put an end to preventable deaths each year.

Places like France have national screening programmes but the UK doesn’t," he sighs.

"That’s the frustrating thing for me. If we had, they might have detected my cancer before it was too late. It’s helped me massively to think at least I can help others catch it early and get treated.”

With that in mind, he has joined forces with a former army medic to set up a men’s health clinic and is also currently researching ways to manufacture a low-cost and effective home blood test - similar to the one used by diabetics to measure their glucose levels.

Campaigning and fundraising are claiming more and more of his time but Kevin has not lost sight of his main priority: his family.

He is planning a road trip to the States this summer with long-term partner Viv to visit his daughter Georgina and step-grandchildren.

He has also every intention to be around to meet his fourth grandchild who is due in August; and is already contemplating travelling to New Zealand for the British and Irish Lions tour next year, hoping to cheer England on at the 2019 Rugby World Cup in Japan.

Despite doctor’s dismal odds, he has not given up hope to beat the five-year survival rate.

“I’m focusing on being there for the next ten years – that’s the plan,” he smiles.

“I know people with the same cancer and they’re alive 11 years later. I’ve got as much chance as anyone else. Maybe I will be the one in five. Why not?”

FACTFILE

* Prostate cancer is the most common cancer in men.

* More than 47,000 men are diagnosed with prostate cancer every year in the UK – that's 130 men every day.

* Every hour one man dies from prostate cancer – that's more than 10,800 every year.

* One in eight men will get prostate cancer in their lifetime.

* More than 330,000 men are living with and after prostate cancer.

* The causes of prostate cancer are largely unknown.

* Tell-tale symptoms include: needing to urinate more often than usual, difficulty starting to urinate, straining or taking a long time to finish urinating, a feeling that you’re not emptying your bladder fully.

* The chances of developing prostate cancer increase with age. Most cases develop in men aged 50 or older.