ONE hundred and sixty men attended a prostate cancer screening event at Worcester Racecourse on Monday, with statistics reportedly showing the county has the UK’s highest incident rate of the disease.

Worcester News is backing a campaign to raise £30,000 for Worcestershire Prostate Awareness Group (WPAG), which has already screened 4,000 men for dangerous PSA levels.

Worcestershire’s 1,000th man this year was tested at the Worcestershire Ambassadors-sponsored event, which saw former England players Steve Bull and Tony Woodcock also in attendance and included a screening of the match.

Retired oncologist surgeon David Baxter-Smith founded the WPAG in 2014 as part of his nationwide scheme to encourage men to get their PSA levels tested.

“I’ve recently heard a statistic that Worcestershire has the highest incidents of prostate cancer in the country,” he said, speaking at the event.

“I think that’s my fault because I go all around Worcestershire finding all these incidents.”

He said men’s willingness to undertake a PSA test has seen a “massive increase” over the last year, citing an event in Droitwich this year which saw double the attendees as 2017, as an example.

His campaign has seen 96,000 blood tests undertaken across the UK, with one in eight being diagnosed with the disease.

“In the case of prostate cancer, diagnose it early, treat it, and you can cure it. The biggest problem is trying to diagnose it early, unlike some cancers.

“But at least a simple blood test can act as an indicator.

“If a man has an abnormal level of PSA in his blood, it says to people that there could be something wrong.”

Dr Baxter-Smith said part of the battle is encouraging men to break from the masculine stereotype of refusing to look after themselves.

He said there is a testing event next Saturday at Barnards Green, Malvern, with 30 men already signed up, but most of them are due to their wives signing them up.

“It’s not a manly thing to admit you might have a problem with your health that you can’t cope with and you’ve got to get help,” he said.

“Men are culturally of that kind. They can look after themselves, they are strong, they are virile, they look after their family, they’ll look after their country but when it comes to looking after themselves, it’s a different story.”

The ultimate aim is for government support – “we want a national screening programme where the Department of Health pulls every man over 45 into their GP for a blood test”.

“It’d put me out of business, but I wouldn’t mind that,” said Dr Baxter-Smith.

“There’s a national screening initiative for bowel cancer, the ladies have got a national screening programme for breast cancer – we keep on at the government at the highest level about having a PSA screening clinic.”

To donate see: justgiving.com/crowdfunding/worcestershire-prostate-awareness

To find out more about upcoming screening events in the county or to make an appointment, call WPAG on 07522 504300.