Bedford prostate testing event for black men hailed a success

In the first of its kind, the Beds Prostate Cancer Support Group invited as many black men as possible to Club Six’s to get tested for the disease.

Past events in Bedford have failed to attract many men from the black community. But it's thought by using the Lurke Street Caribbean club - an idea by support group committee member and disease sufferer, Trevor Sinclair - more men would attend.

And he was right - out of the 62 men who took the blood test, 58 were black males. A far cry from the 10 who attended out of 595 last time.

The PSA test is a blood test which measures the amount of prostate specific antigen (PSA) in your blood. PSA is a protein produced by normal cells in the prostate and also by prostate cancer cells. It’s normal to have a small amount of PSA in your blood, and the amount rises slightly as you get older and your prostate gets bigger. A raised PSA level may suggest that you have a problem with your prostate, but not necessarily cancer.

Statistics show that one in eight white males will get prostate cancer at some point in their life compared to one in four black males. And, one man will die from prostate cancer every 45 minutes.

The Beds Prostate Cancer Support Group meets every second Monday at Bedford Borough Bowling Club on Goldington Road at 7.30pm.

For further information, visit the group's website here