Free Radio Forum: Re: Our man Dave

I think prostate is one of the several cancers that often don’t present symptoms at all or not until it’s a bit late. Bill Turnbull off the telly is an example of someone who didn’t spot it until it was too late. It is warming to hear, and is perhaps some comfort to them too, that Dave’s friends and colleagues applied pressure to him toget seen.

My mother was a bit of a one for avoiding treatment as far as possible too. She later admitted she’d made the wrong call.

A quick word for bowel cancer if I may. obviously this affects both sexes and is usually easier to spot. That said I had no classic symptoms of tummy pain, weight loss (I wish) or blood in poo. But what I did have was a change of bowel habit - rushing to the loo at work. In my case no pals or colleagues spotted it. It was my wife who eventually smelt a rat, as it were, and nagged me to get seen. But I’m one of the lucky ones.

I’ve been going to the Southampton gathering when I can recently. I usually sit with Tim Allen (class of ‘87) and Mike Simmonds amongst others. Which is also mainly where I’ve spoken to Dave. I enjoyed his mention of an interest in cleaning up iffy lyrics in old songs to make them airable. I can’t think of examples right now but I’m sure if you know, you know. He certainly came across exactly as those who knew him well have described. I always thought it quite a journey from home for him to Southampton too (so too for Albert & Georgina of course) and Dave often took a low key role, chatting to punters, rather than go on stage. That said he spoke eloquently and succinctly at the last meeting, which went down well of course.

Previous Message

Dave Foster....

At the 'other place ' a person has asked about Dave and the nature of his illness which I think is a salutary lesson for all of us.
Dave was a BBC studio sound technician but the role was privatised and he did not like the new regime so he quit.
To get some income he became a hospital porter doing permanent night shifts at some stage to boost his earnings.
A while ago like ' quite a while ago ' he got the old mans problem of having to have a piss rather often. Actually he was not that old. This was noticed on board as he took to sleeping in an armchair so as to have access to the toilet every 20 minutes. He was urged to seek a diagnosis but like so many daft men he brushed this off, even though he worked in a hospital and could maybe have jumped the N.H.S queue.
After too long he sought a diagnosis to learn that he had prostate cancer which on the face of it is often quite curable.
But due to the delay this had escaped in to his bones which caused just a holding exercise of chemo and radiation.
As his sick pay was about to be halved he even returned to work for a short while before admitting that he could not now do the job.
Various of us urged him to resign,cash in his pensions and live comfortably for ' as long as '. But he ran out of time. Along with everything else he needed dialysis but his body was too weak.
So if you even think you have a similar problem building DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT....NOW.

For a bit of humour in a sad subject I had a private health check and the nurse urged me to have a PSA test which I agreed to. As my partner was in the same room, the nurse whispered in my ear ' have you had intercourse in the last 48 hours ? ' I almost fell off the bed laughing while saying ' I wish '.

PM.