The Undertones star Feargal Sharkey reveals shock prostate cancer diagnosis after GP visit for a sore throat
FEARGAL Sharkey has revealed he was diagnosed with prostate cancer after a casual visit to his local GP for a sore throat.
The water campaigner, 66, has spoken out about his 2023 ordeal to raise awareness and urge men to undergo cancer screenings.
2
After his testicular cancer scare, the Undertones singer is now doing 'very well' and pledged to 'carry on this fight' for clean waterways after his health issue was cleared up a year ago.
A keen angler, Feargal told the Express: 'About a year and a half ago, I randomly went to see my GP with a sore throat.
"Now I've known him long enough but he goes, 'No no, you're that bloke that used to sing.
'So if you're telling me you've got a sore throat, something is going on'.
'So my doctor, being the beautiful, wonderful, awkward, cantankerous old man that is gone, 'Oh Feargal, by the way, you're 65 now, I'm going to run the full battery of tests'.'
That wondrously awkward old physician's insistence on checking out the singer resulted in him being diagnosed with prostate cancer.
But 'without that random visit' to his local GP, Feargal would have never known that he had cancer, and warned 'it could have been a very different ending and a very different outcome to my life.'
He urged all men over 45 to go and get checked out for prostate cancer saying 'If you're lucky', you'll walk away.'
The campaigner has slammed water companies, blaming their 'greed, profiteering, financial engineering and regulatory incompetence.'
He has denounced companies such as United Utilities, which deals with wastewater across the Northwest of England.
How to check your prostate cancer risk
Storm overflows at two water treatment plants dumped raw untreated sewage at Cunsey Beck and Haskshead Pumpking Station, both flowing into England's largest Lake Windemere.
The company claimed the spill was due to record rainfall last August but mourning evidence indicates spills are happening regularly.
Campaigners claim the spills are due to a lack of infrastructure investment.
Feargal said: 'Sewage dumping has nothing whatsoever to do with heavy rain.
In an interview on BBC Radio 4 Today was asked if banning bonuses for water bosses and criminal liability for spills would go far enough in the new water bill.
In response, he said: 'Whitehall has no monopoly in any of this by any means. Welsh Water, for example, is actually the largest sewage dumper in the United Kingdom. Scotland has any number of rivers in bad ecological condition.
'Lough Neagh in Northern Ireland has been poisoned to the extent that it too now turns green, like Windermere.'
What causes prostate cancer?
Prostate cancer is very common but its causes remain a mystery.
As with most cancers, the older you get, the more you are at risk, and its most common in men in their older 70s.
Ethnicity plays a role and it is more common in Black men than white men, and least common in Asian men.
There is a genetic element, and your odds are worse if you have a male relative whose had the disease.
Being overweight increases your risk of getting the disease, and excersize lowers it.
A very high calcium diet rich in dairy is thought to increase the chances of getting sick so you might have to lay off the cheese.
One in eight men will get prostate cancer
THE risk of developing prostate cancer depends on many factors.
Here are some of the facts about the disease and how many men it affects...
One in eight men will get prostate cancer in their lifetime
It is the fourth most common cancer worldwide, and the second most common in men
There are 55,000 new cases every year in the UK, and 1.4million globally
Around 12,000 people lose their lives to prostate cancer annually in the UK and almost 400,000 around the world
Prostate cancer accounts for 28 per cent of all new cancer cases in men in the UK, and 14 per cent of all new cancer cases in men and women combined
Prostate cancer survival has tripled in the last 50 years in the UK
More than three-quarters (78 per cent) of patients survive for 10 or more years
About 490,000 men are living with and after prostate cancer in the UK
It is most common in men aged 75 to 79
Since the early 1990s, cases have increased by 53 per cent in the UK
Mortality rates are up 16 per cent since the early 1970s in the UK
Incidence rates are projected to rise by 15 per cent in the UK between 2023 to 2025 and 2038 to 2040
Mortality rates are expected to fall five per cent in the UK over the same years
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
BBC News
27 minutes ago
- BBC News
NHS plans to DNA test all babies in England to assess disease risk
Every newborn baby in England will have their DNA mapped to assess their risk of hundreds of diseases, under NHS plans for the next 10 scheme, first reported by the Daily Telegraph, is part of a government drive towards predicting and preventing illness, which will also see £650m invested in DNA research for all patients by Secretary Wes Streeting said gene technology would enable the health service to "leapfrog disease, so we're in front of it rather than reacting to it".It comes after a study analysing the genetic code of up to 100,000 babies was announced in October. The government's 10-year plan for the NHS, which is set to be revealed over the next few weeks is aimed at easing pressure on Department for Health and Social Care said that genomics - the study of genes - and AI would be used to "revolutionise prevention" and provide faster diagnoses and an "early warning signal for disease".Screening newborn babies for rare diseases will involve sequencing their complete DNA using blood samples from their umbilical are approximately 7,000 single gene disorders. The NHS study which began in October only looked for gene disorders that develop in early childhood and for which there are effective newborn babies are only given a heelprick blood test that checks for nine serious conditions, including cystic health secretary said in a statement: "With the power of this new technology, patients will be able to receive personalised healthcare to prevent ill-health before symptoms begin, reducing the pressure on NHS services and helping people live longer, healthier lives."
Sky News
2 hours ago
- Sky News
'Don't kill the ill' vs 'What a relief': Two terminally ill people on the assisted dying vote
Over the past year, Sky News has been following the journeys of two people who are terminally ill and on opposite sides of the assisted dying debate. Philip, a Christian pastor, views it as suicide and says supporters of the bill need more faith. Clare, a former counsellor, thinks it should be a personal choice, which for her could offer a good death. Philip died two days before Friday's historic vote, which saw MPs vote in favour of assisted dying. "Kill the bill, don't kill the ill," he told Sky News days before he died. Philip said better palliative care can make all the difference. "I still believe it's because of money. It would save millions and millions if they bump off people like me and Clare and others." Philip was resting in a bed in his living room when we spoke to him. Doctors had told him he had just days left. He was struggling to eat and experiencing hallucinations. "Just now, I went to kiss [my wife] Pauline and she's not there." He pointed to a corner of a biscuit he'd been eating over the last three days that's "not even as big as my thumb". "That's the maximum amount of food I can eat because I'm blocked with cancer." "Logically, I should be screaming and ranting and shouting. But I've been organising things like the funeral," he said, explaining that his belief in Jesus means he's at peace with death, however it comes. At times he cries and very often, he winces in pain. Asked what it would mean if the vote was passed, Philip said it would be "a terrible step downwards". Assisted dying would desensitise the British public to death, he explained. "I personally am totally against it, because you're missing out on what God's planned for you. "Because even now, he knows what's going to happen in me, he knows what's going to happen in the other people." He added: "You'll miss the support of people who love you. Because there are people who love you. If you just reach out to them." Philip died on Wednesday morning, two days before the bill's third reading and ascension to the House of Lords. Clare is sitting in her friend's garden in Cirencester, Gloucestershire, surrounded by nature and absorbing the news that the vote has passed. She tells Sky News: "Oh what a relief! Thank goodness. Thank you to all those people who were brave." Clare has breast cancer which has spread to her bones. Her doctors say her lungs have hardened, making it more difficult for her to breathe. "I'm breathless all the time especially if I'm talking. I can't walk very far without being breathless. Now my heart has to work very, very hard to keep my oxygen levels up." Clare has supported the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill from its inception and calls it a "difficult subject". "People are very fearful," she says, before acknowledging that concerns remain for vulnerable people at risk of coercion. "Lots of people have been in controlling relationships, and I really understand how that works. "I've got daughters and I can understand situations where people are thinking, 'oh, I don't want to be a burden on somebody else' and all of that. But I think it's [worth] remembering that this is one choice out of many." Clare is aware it is unlikely the law will change before she dies. "It won't for [be there] me and it hasn't come in time for lots of people, has it?" she says. "All the people that have gone before that would've liked this choice to avoid suffering and indignity." Clare turns 60 this year and is marking her birthday with 60 memorable days. "I'm enjoying life," she says with a big smile. "I don't want to die, but we all have to go."
Sky News
3 hours ago
- Sky News
Ex-classmates died after being treated at same mental health hospital - as concerns raised over more deaths
They were former classmates who both died after receiving care from the same mental health hospital three years apart. Warning: This article contains reference to suicide Multiple failings led to the death of 22-year-old Alice Figueiredo - who took her own life in July 2015 - and the NHS trust responsible for her care was charged with corporate manslaughter. Last week, following a months-long trial, the trust was found not guilty of that charge but was convicted of serious health and safety failings. Karis Braithwate, who had gone to school with Alice, also died in 2018, having been treated by the same NHS trust. Reports seen by Sky News detail a decade of deaths at North East London NHS Foundation Trust (NELFT), with coroners repeatedly raising concerns about the mental health services provided by the trust - in particular at Goodmayes Hospital in Ilford. Rushed assessments and neglect were often cited. One patient was marked as alive and well, even though he had taken his own life inside the hospital the previous day. Another patient told staff he was hearing voices telling him to kill himself, yet staff did not remove crucial items from his possession - items he would later use to take his own life. Karis, 24, was sent to Goodmayes Hospital after she tried to take her own life at a train station in October 2018. The next day, staff spent 27 minutes assessing her and a further two minutes confirming their conclusion. She was discharged from hospital in the afternoon. She then went to a nearby railway station and took her own life. Her death came less than an hour after she had left the hospital. Karis had been friends with Alice, her mother said. The pair had been classmates at the same school. Karis told her mother she was upset at being put on the same ward where Alice had taken her own life three years earlier. Her stepfather Mark Bambridge called Karis sweet and kind and said she often "struggled with life". He felt relief when she was taken to hospital, saying: "She was in a place where she would be taken care of." Karis's mother - who asked not to be named - said her daughter confided in her about the neglect she endured at the hospital. Karis told her mother that her carer would sleep when they were supposed to be watching over her and said she never felt safe. "She spoke of her belongings going missing, of being treated with indifference and disrespect, and of staff who showed little concern for her wellbeing," her mother said. Karis's mother said her daughter was failed by the hospital and the family was offered only a "hollow, superficial and indifferent 'apology' from the administration team of those who were meant to protect her". In the wake of the verdict in Alice's case, Karis's mother said: "I am holding Alice's family in my thoughts and praying they receive the justice they - and we - so clearly need and deserve." A spokesperson for NELFT called Karis's death a "profound tragedy" and said the trust had conducted an in-depth review of patient safety since 2018, "resulting in significant changes in the way we assess risk of suicide". "We train our staff to consider the trauma in a patient's history, rather than focusing solely on their current crisis," the spokesperson added. "This approach allows us to see the person behind the diagnosis, making it easier to identify warning signs and support safe recovery." The trust said it had also improved record-keeping and communication between emergency workers and mental health practitioners. The man marked as alive after he'd died Sky News looked at more than 20 prevention of future death reports, which are written by a coroner to draw attention to a matter in which they think action could be taken to prevent future deaths. Behind each report is a different person, but there are some strikingly similar themes - failure to carry out adequate risk assessments; issues sharing and recording information; neglect. One report said staff at Goodmayes Hospital "panicked and did not follow policy" in the wake of a man's death in 2021, instead writing that he was still alive when he had died the day before. Speaking in response at the time, the trust said it had written a "detailed action plan" to address concerns raised. Another report said one woman developed deep vein thrombosis after she was left to sit motionless in her room. She had not eaten or drunk anything in the two days before her death, and the trust was criticised for failing to record her food intake. Responding to the report at the time, the trust said it had implemented new policies to learn from her death. Issues stretched beyond Goodmayes Hospital and spanned the entire NHS trust. One man was not given any community support and overdosed after his access to medication was not limited. Another man, a father of three, was detained under the Mental Health Act but released from Goodmayes after just a few hours. The 39-year-old was found dead two weeks later after being reported missing by his family. At his inquest, a coroner raised concerns about the lack of a detailed assessment around him, with a junior doctor saying he was the only doctor available for 11 wards and 200 patients. 'Don't kill yourself on my shift' It has been 10 years since Alice took her own life inside the walls of Goodmayes Hospital. But current patients say the issues haven't gone away. Teresa Whitbread said her 18-year-old granddaughter Chantelle was a high suicide risk but she still managed to escape from the hospital "20 times". "I walked in one day and said, 'Where is Chantelle?', and no one could tell me," she told Sky News. On another occasion, Chantelle managed to get into the medical room and stabbed herself and a nurse with a needle. She said one nurse told her granddaughter: "Don't kill yourself on my shift. Wait until you go home and kill yourself." Teresa grew emotional as she talked about her granddaughter, once a vibrant young girl and avid boxer, whose treatment is now managed by community services. "It's made her worse," Teresa said of Chantelle's experience at Goodmayes Hospital. "There's no care, there's no care plan, there's no treatment." The NEFLT said it could not comment on specific cases but added that "patient safety is our absolute priority, and we work closely with our patients and their families to ensure we provide compassionate care tailored to their needs". Chantelle's family say she is a shell of her former self and have begged mental health services not send her back to Goodmayes. "Something has to change, and if it doesn't change, [the hospital] needs to be closed down," Teresa said. "Because people are not safe in there."
