Tony Collier, who was diagnosed with incurable prostate cancer in 2017, said: “If I’d had that simple blood test I could be in a totally different position now, instead of being given a worst case prognosis of two to three years.”
He said he was only diagnosed when he went to a doctor with a groin strain while training for a marathon.
“Being told you have cancer is devastating; being told it’s incurable is indescribable and you immediately go to a very dark place,” he said.
“[The doctor] said ‘you may be lucky and get longer’.
“But you only hear the ‘two to three years’, you don’t hear the ‘longer’.
“I started living as if I was going to die in two years’ time. I got that so wrong.
“I spent the 18 months after my diagnosis thinking so much of dying that I forgot the joy of living.
“I soon realised I needed to sort myself out.”
Tony’s wife Tracey said they kept each other strong by focusing on living in the present.
“I did say to him at the time ‘If you’re still here then you’ve wasted 12 months.’
“Don’t waste a day, don’t just sit in a chair and wait for it to end.”
Tony said he was now determined to make sure “as few men as possible end up like me”.
“It’s really important that we save as many men’s lives as possible. And 12,000 men are dying every year. That’s one every 45 minutes.
“The quicker we stop that, the better. And the only way we can stop that is with a screening programme.
“In the meantime, we’ve just got awareness. That’s all we’ve got left.”
The screening committee will make its final recommendations to the governments of the four UK nations later this month after a consultation process closed in February.