iPhone app can help spot early cancer signs

The father-of-two, of Upper Stratton, has invested £25,000 to create an iPhone app called The Healthy Living Tracker which advises people when and how to check for signs of the disease and helps people track their diets and exercise.

He started creating the app after his friend and colleague, Bob Beach, who was in his 50s, died of lung cancer in 2007.

Andy said: “He was a rough and tough sort of guy and he said ‘I’ll be fine’ and brushed it under the carpet. I kept telling him to get some advice but he didn’t. He thought it was just a pain and a bad cough.

“When he did go the doctor said ‘if you had come to us a few months ago we could have done something about it. Because you have left it there is nothing we can do’.

“I thought: what can I do? I’m standing here with my friend who is on a death sentence. I can do nothing to save him.

“He was a good friend and I have now lost him. Cancer is a ticking time bomb.”

Andy’s app has now been sent to Apple, where the final checks are being made before it is officially launched.

He said: “Bob’s death inspired me to go one step further and have a whole idea of healthy living with exercise. We are told we need to be checking ourselves at least once a month and I hardly know anyone who does that. It is just a simple thing, if you catch it early there is a chance you will survive it.”

Andy also lost his brother-in-law to a brain tumour in 1999, his mother-in-law to kidney cancer and a stroke in 2006, and his brother is fighting a brain tumour for the second time.

“It has affected me in a strange way but in a pro-active way. Cancer is on the increase and one of the side effects of obesity is diabetes and cancer. Hopefully the app will help,” he said.

The app includes advice on how and why to check as well as links to websites with more information.

“You can literally save your life if you know what you are looking for and in the app all the information is there,” he said.