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Celebrities Talking about Prostate Cancer - Is It Always a Good Thing?

Recently, a number of celebrities including Rod Stewart and Elton John have talked about their prostate cancer experiences. Over in the UK, we’ve also had comedian Stephen Fry, who announced his diagnosis and surgical treatment in a YouTube video and BBC journalist Bill Turnbull who has been very open about living with advanced prostate cancer.

Shine a light on prostate cancer

The standard response to these announcements and stories is that these well-known men shine a light on a disease and this brings an awareness that no amount of charity spending could create. With that awareness we see many more men coming forward to have their symptoms investigated thus saving the lives of those men who go forward to treatment. The rise in awareness caused by Turnbull and Fry even has its own name -- the ‘Fry and Turnbull effect’ as an additional 4,000 men in Q2 2018 received treatment in part caused by the publicity.1

A rapidly-growing flood of patients

The first problem that can arise is a rapidly-growing torrent of patients. The National Health Service in the UK is already struggling with the effects of an aging population, a lack of trained staff and budget constraints.

A really quick rise in the number of referrals and investigations in an already busy urology department places a huge strain on the staff, who were probably already struggling with their workload as it was. Up that workload by 36 percent (see above) and some will surely start to experience the personal signs of stress, the worry that they are letting people down and possible burnout, now a recognized condition according to the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners.2

Overlooking us "ordinary" folks

There’s another broader issue that I see though. With a loose collective of men and a few women, I’ve been working away at awareness and related issues for the last nine years. From time to time we’ve struck lucky with a journalist or TV producer who has been keen to highlight our work and our disease.

In an increasingly celebrity-driven world, however, I’m finding that we are of less interest now. Those media people who liked our ordinariness are now being pressured to go for the ratings by putting forward not the guy in the street but the face from the big screen or the stage.

Let's talk about representation and accessibility

I worry that Fry and Turnbull, Stewart and John (all of whom have shows, books, and records to sell) have perhaps unwittingly hijacked our disease which shows no class distinctions. We must acknowledge that this disease is actually more common in Afro-Carribean men (and all four of these men are very white).

For celebrities, this is a disease where they are able to easily access the best surgeons, physicians, and therapies. They don’t have to wait in line for scarce resources and lovely but overworked staff. They don't go home to a worried family who may have lost their sole income provider and who already earn less in a year than what these celebrities can make for a single appearance on a prime-time show. I’m sorry guys, but I’d like my disease back.

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