Former police officer on his battle with breast cancer, the effects of treatment and getting involved in the MoonWalk

IN 2015, Dave Talbot was one of the 350 men in the UK diagnosed with breast cancer each year.

As Dave, a former police officer who now runs his own IT company, says: “It’s interesting, a survey reckons something like 65% of men are aware they can get breast cancer.

“I’m surprised it’s that high because a significant number of people I talk to don’t know about it, but what’s for sure is the number of men who check themselves is abysmally low.

“I find it really frustrating because one of the things I learned during my cancer journey was that a significant proportion of cancers are discovered in A&E.

“Someone has a persistent backache for months and it gets to the point where they can’t cope with it, go into emergency, get scanned and are told: ‘You’ve got cancer and it’s gone too far.’

“Typical men, we don’t want to bother the doctor, and that’s why after being diagnosed, I’ve got involved in the MoonWalk.

“It’s to try to get across to men that if your body changes in any way, if it’s not right for a couple of weeks, go and get it checked.”

Unlike many men, after finding a lump between his nipple and armpit while on holiday in Florida, Dave did go and see his GP when he returned home, even though he didn’t feel unwell and a similar event 15 years previously proved to be a false alarm.

Dave, who’s 60, explains: “I grew up with a mother who lost a child very, very young to leukaemia so all the way through my childhood, any lump or bump she couldn’t explain, I was off to the doctor because she was absolutely terrified of something happening to me.

“So she ingrained that in me, and I also had a brilliant GP.

“She said it was almost certainly going to be fatty tissue, but we had to get it checked to be sure.

“And when I went to the breast cancer service the first thing that was said was: ‘It’s almost certainly fatty tissue in a man of your age, but we need to check.’”

The lump was the size of a golf ball and a diagnosis of hormone receptive breast cancer resulted in major surgery, six rounds of chemotherapy and 20 sessions of radiotherapy.

Even though I knew men could get breast cancer, I still was surprised when Dave talked of his “mastectomy”.

“The actual treatment is identical,” he reveals.

“The two major differences are firstly there’s a lot less tissue to take away.

“I’ve still got a big hole in my chest, though, and no lymph nodes under my right arm and no nipple.

“When I was first told that would have to go, that was what bothered me most.

“And secondly, for a man losing the breast tissue psychologically is a lot less impactful than for a lady for obvious reasons, as is loss of hair.

“Whatever they say you need, you take it on the chin.

“The radiotherapy was mainly just inconvenient, but the chemo was a different kettle of fish.

“To me it was like being pregnant in some ways,” says Dave.

“It screwed up my appetite, my tastebuds — I’d yearn for beans on toast and by the time my other half had made them I didn’t want that any more, I wanted curry!

“I’m still getting checked every 12 months and like the ladies with my type of breast cancer, I also have to take Tamoxifen for 10 years.

“It’s had some odd effects.

“By nature, I’ve always been a person who’s very short-tempered and doesn’t suffer fools gladly, but within a month of taking this — and there’s no scientific evidence to back this up because there’s very little empirical evidence of the effects of Tamoxifen on men — I felt calmer.

“I don’t get stressed as much and when I ran it past the oncologist, he said one explanation could be that testosterone is the hormone that tends to make men bad-tempered and perhaps the drug counteracts that.

“I did ask what research had been done on men, and what the side effects were, and he was very honest and said there wasn’t any.

“But he said: ‘We have to assume that because it’s this particular type of cancer which is caused by a problem with a particular hormone, if it was a woman, we’d give them this and we had to take the same approach.

“‘It’s not going to harm you, but if it works the same way in men as in women it reduces the risks of recurrence from 30% to 8%.’

“It’s probably genetic, as my mum passed away from ovarian cancer, which is linked to breast cancer,” adds Dave.

“As a man, you have to accept there isn’t very much knowledge on how various treatments may affect you and you are something of an oddity.

“Also, everything linked with breast cancer and the MoonWalk is pink.

“The exception is a booklet I was given on my diagnosis, all about male breast cancer, which was a glorious shade of blue!”

SAS kept their eyes on me during the MoonWalk!

DAVE took part in last year’s MoonWalk London when he was halfway through his treatment for breast cancer.

His partner wasn’t keen on the idea but he enlisted two pals to make sure he was OK, and he couldn’t have been in better hands as the pair are ex-SAS!

“I can’t give you their real names or how I know them, for the normal reasons, but they still go yomping up hills and are supremely fit,” laughs Dave.

“When I got breast cancer I said to my other half: ‘I’m doing the MoonWalk’ but she pointed out I’d be right in the middle of my chemotherapy.

“I was originally down to do the full 26 miles but I was quite unwell so she persuaded me to only do 16 and I said to the guys: ‘I’m doing this but I’m getting it in the neck.’

“They said: ‘Tell you what, we’ll shadow you around but you need to agree that if we say you look unwell and need to stop, we’ll take you off.’

“So these two guys, you never quite knew when they were going to pop out of the shadows from behind a tree or round a corner but that’s what they did complete with black hats — the only thing missing was the balaclavas!

“They were absolutely brilliant because it was a hard slog and I wasn’t feeling great, so the motivation of these just popping up and saying: ‘Come on, you’re doing fine’ was terrific.

“At MoonWalk events they call people up and among this great group of women I stuck out like a sore thumb! I still had no hair, I’m not a small chap and I was wearing a bright pink T-shirt and when I said: ‘I’m a man with breast cancer’ I got a huge cheer from 10,000 women!

“The ironic thing is I’d done the MoonWalk in Edinburgh in 2012 not knowing I was going to be on the receiving end.

“It’s my way of sticking two fingers up at the disease.”

 

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

For more information on MoonWalks visit www.walkthewalk.org