{"id":833041,"date":"2026-11-13T06:22:29","date_gmt":"2026-11-13T06:22:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/833041\/"},"modified":"2026-11-13T06:22:29","modified_gmt":"2026-11-13T06:22:29","slug":"i-ignored-my-cancer-symptoms-for-about-a-year-dont-do-the-same","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/833041\/","title":{"rendered":"‘I ignored my cancer symptoms for about a year, don’t do the same’"},"content":{"rendered":"

“It is very easy to ignore a little niggle, or a small change, especially as we get older”\"David<\/p>\n

David Johnston with his wife Diane<\/p>\n

A Co Down man who initially ignored his cancer symptoms has warned other men not to do the same.<\/p>\n

David Johnston opened up about his recent cancer diagnosis, urging men of all ages not to ignore symptoms.<\/p>\n

The 59-year-old from Bangor<\/a> said he ignored his symptoms for about a year, before seeking medical advice and subsequently being diagnosed with Stage 4 prostate cancer.<\/p>\n

Prostate cancer is the most common cancer <\/a>in men across the UK, and in Northern Ireland<\/a>, more than 1,400 men are diagnosed every year, with 13,000 men living with and after prostate cancer here.<\/p>\n

Early-stage prostate cancer often has no symptoms; however, when symptoms do appear they can include difficulty urinating, feeling your bladder hasn\u2019t emptied fully, needing to urinate more often \u2013 especially at night\u2014and blood in the urine.<\/p>\n

David said: “It is very easy to ignore a little niggle, or a small change, especially as we get older and I think most men don\u2019t like to talk about a lot of medical things. I was going to the bathroom more than usual, but again, I didn\u2019t really question it as I thought that was just a consequence of getting older.”<\/p>\n

His wife Diane, 60, added: “We started to notice it was getting more and more frequent and discussed getting an appointment with the GP; however, he just kept putting it off as generally he was in good health<\/a>. It was a year between his symptoms beginning, and his diagnosis, and we want to make sure nobody else ignores these signs as they are very easily gone unnoticed.”<\/p>\n

Diane, who is the practice manager at Specsavers in Bloomfield Shopping Centre, spoke about David’s diagnosis after the optical team set off on a sponsored walk to fundraise for Prostate Cancer UK.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The team from Specsavers Bangor, Bloomfield Shopping Centre during the walk in aid of Prostate Cancer UK<\/p>\n

Diane, who was the first ever employee at Specsavers Bangor Bloomfield and has been with the practice for 31 years, says she is so grateful that her work family is supporting her family<\/a>, which includes David and Diane\u2019s son Chris (33), daughter Sara (29) and their grandson, who is 19 months old.<\/p>\n

She added: “To have my team give up their personal time, rally together and show their support to my family is so touching. We are all so honoured that they chose to do this for us, helping us to raise as much as possible for Prostate Cancer UK, and of course highlight to other men that they should get checked and to see their GP as soon as possible.”<\/p>\n

\"David<\/p>\n

David and Diane with their daughter Sara during the sponsored walk<\/p>\n

Andrea Ridgway, store partner at Specsavers Bangor added: “Diane is part of our family and when we heard the news, we wanted to ensure she and David knew they were supported. On October 11, we walked from Seapark, Holywood<\/a> and walked around 7.5 miles to Bangor Marina, with friends and family giving generously for Prostate Cancer UK in David\u2019s name.”<\/p>\n

To support Specsavers Bangor Bloomfield\u2019s team trek for Prostate Cancer UK, visit their Just Giving page<\/a>. For more information on Prostate Cancer UK, visit prostatecanceruk.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n

For all the latest news, visit the Belfast Live homepage here<\/a> and sign up to our daily newsletter<\/a> here.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"“It is very easy to ignore a little niggle, or a small change, especially as we get older”…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":833042,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[12955,847,2861,2864,59,102,2205,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-833041","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-bangor","tag-cancer","tag-co-down","tag-family","tag-gb","tag-health","tag-real-life","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/833041","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=833041"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/833041\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/833042"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=833041"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=833041"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=833041"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}