Hello my name is Andy and I'm 58 years old.

Just recently I have been diagnosed with early onset prostate cancer. The NHS think that is is in my best interest not to treat it (as I am considered young) as the side effects are too extreme to do anything at this point.

This is something very unsettling to me as 16 years ago my dad had the same diagnosis and the treatment has not progressed any further since then. My father was 64 years old when he was diagnosed and they did what is called 'active surveillance', this is what they would like to do with me too. After a couple of years my dad's health deteriorated, his cancer had progressed and he had to undergo radiotherapy. Unfortunately his cancer became so aggressive that his treatment did not work, the cancer spread throughout his body and sadly he lost his battle.

I have recently discovered a private treatment called 'Focal Therapy' that I was not informed of by my consultant when I was diagnosed. This treatment is in the clinical trials stage at the moment but it has had excellent success rates so far, however, because it is in the trial stage it is not available on or funded by the NHS.

After discovering this new treatment, I went back to my consultant and asked for his advice on what I had found, he agreed that more people were needed for the clinical trials to ensure it had a chance to be successfully added to the NHS options of treatment plans, he also confirmed that I met all of the criteria for this treatment.

Treating cancer early saves lives!!

So now I am just hoping and praying that I and others like me don't go down the same path as my dad did. I have a very active lifestyle and two amazing young grandchildren I would love to see grow up. I don't want to just throw in the towel, I want to fight this!!

LET'S KILL CANCER TOGETHER AND MAKE 'FOCAL THERAPY' PART OF THE NHS!!