In 2021, my friend called me up, he was around the same age as me and said that he's got prostate cancer. I was shocked, of course, but he told me that he's got an operation coming up very, very quickly and that he I should going to get checked.

He told me that he had symptoms and ignored it. He's also got a family history of prostate and basically, he ignored it but for me I had no symptoms, so I had no need to go and get checked. But he encouraged me, he told me that black men we are higher risk. When he when he told me that, I did my own research and it transpired that one in eight men will get prostate cancer, but for black men we are one in four. Those people also with family history are in a higher risk category as well as age 50 and upwards, but for black men the age is slightly lower age. 45 and upwards, really you should be starting to get your prostate checked.

My GP said, ‘Well you got no symptoms, so you know I shouldn't really be sending you for a PSA blood test’. I insisted and he did a physical exam which was not conclusive and then he sent me for a blood test. The results of the blood test came back that my PSA was quite high - around 17 - and he sent me to the urology department and then I had an MRI scan, followed by a biopsy. And I wasn't expecting anything at all really, because I know that from my research other things can impact the PSA level being raised like protein, like if you're doing exercises and what you were doing prior to doing the PSA test.

The results of the biopsy came back; they took about 18 samples, around 80% of that suggested that I've got cancer, and I mean I was, you know, it was horrible. The doctor said to me ‘Do you know I'm telling you’ve that you got cancer?’ and that's when it dawned upon me that I've got cancer. From someone that's winning World Championships all of a sudden, I'm in my worst, vulnerable position that I've got cancer. So, it just shows that it doesn't matter how fit you are, how much you try to minimise these risks by, you know, your lifestyle this cancer doesn't discriminate.

So, once I was diagnosed, lucky for me after the biopsy they needed to know whether the cancer spread but lucky for me my cancer was what is called localised. It was within my prostate so, in September 2021, I had an operation. When I was diagnosed my cancer was at stage 2C; when I had my operation in September the cancer had changed to stage 3B. So, I know some people may say that prostate cancer is not progressive but it's different for everybody. It could be quite progressive, and I've come back to the thing that I love. It took a while, but I had plans in place to see if I can return back to competition and I have come back from cancer, and I even broke the world record for my age group.