Credit - Stephenfry.com
so um here we are
it's funny how everything begins with so
these days doesn't it when you hear
people being interviewed they always
start with so and I have to start with
so so here's my news I want to share
with you hmm I oh I didn't know how to
say this really well it's not difficult
I would see my doctor just before
Christmas fir for a flu jab I'd heard it
was gonna be a bit bad this year and
thought maybe a flu jab would be a good
idea keep me in the circulation and
things to do so I went to see my doctor
Tony he was in my school your - about me
but I've known him he's been my doctor
for many many years and he said well
let's have this have a general checkup
you know MOT and see if everything's all
right
I have one of these if we don't worry
about so he you know aside from the flu
jab and my blood taken and urine and you
know pressure bouncing tapping here and
tapping there say are say 99 you know
that the general procedure didn't think
much more of it really then next day he
called me up and he said I'm a little
worried about your PSA levels no I
didn't have you know what PSA levels are
I hope you do if you're a man you
certainly shouldn't do it stands for
prostate specific antigen and these are
things that the prostate give out if if
it's under attack from some sort of
tumor and you're supposed to get them
checked every day and I think a normal
level is anything under four nano grams
per milliliter
and mine was four point nine seven
nearly five watts are not very high to
be perfectly honest someone 10 years
older than me would expect 5 as a sort
of mean level of PSA so so every day I
wasn't too concerned but Tony said maybe
maybe you should consider an MRI and it
seemed to be taking a bit of a
sledgehammer to a peanut but I said ok
just to keep him happy and no not
supposed to keep myself happy as well so
I I went into one of those MRI imaging
suite sort of you called them in a great
big ring then you get got on a flatbed
and sort of ease through until this ring
is around here and then it fires these
magnetic beams Tong Tong Tong do you
remember Regan in in The Exorcist poor
little girl Rica McNeil be being
examined
well I was being examined not for
anything is beastly a Satan but
something as basically and it was in in
the prostate that they were looking now
what he's a prostate Hey what I'm still
not that certain myself it's a it's not
an organ so much as a gland I believe
and it's it's between a man because only
men have them a man's bladder and and
his his old feather his charger I
suppose and it has a tube going through
it from the bladder and eventually ends
up in the urethra and it it does
something to make the the sperm more
fluid once it hits hits it's it's it's a
target I suppose it makes I don't know
it makes it less viscous goodness knows
anyway it's a it's a very important job
for men to have um and it doesn't go
wrong it gets enlarged and makes being
difficult or too easy or something and
and of course it is an absolutely prone
bugger firfer for cancer anyway I've
said the c-word first first off now so
uh where were we
yes I had the MRI again went home did
much more of it then the next day
technicals again with and he says Oh
Stephen them something rather
mischievous showed up a good word Tony
and mischievous
I said what does that mean he said well
maybe you should go and see a specialist
now so he sent me to a fella called
Roger who was a professor of neurology
very famous chap in his field I believe
um and Roger had looked at the MRI
imaging he suggested a biopsy
I don't know that you get live at a at a
prostate you know I grew up either one
one tube or up the other well anyway
it's all very personal and undignified
this story so I'm as well
but it didn't come clean with you it was
a transrectal perhaps it says some sort
of thing went up and and took a clip of
living tissue from the prostrate it's
not an experience I would recommend to
my worst enemy really very unpleasant
feeling it's like taking a nice call you
know in the polls
it took these two bits out of me just to
be sure
um and again another weight and then I
get results next day and yes indeed
there is there is a cancer there
carcinoma is a Nandina carcinoma is that
correct well I believe and these things
are graded there's there's a particular
grading system for prostate cancer it's
called the Gleason score and my score
was eight it seemed we'll come to that a
bit later but that's that's high enough
to warrant some sort of treatment and
the next stage was just to make
assurance doubly sure as one of them and
have a PET scan you know one of these
things where they inject you with the
some sort of radioactive material
gallium arsenide in this instance I
think was just gallium not the arsenide
no I'm thinking something else that they
inject you with gallium and then it
sends around the system and any bit
that's in any way cancerous is lit up
shows avidity I think is the technical
term so I'm sorry if I'm boring you but
anyway I'll get to the chase again i and
that gets done and I come back in
another night of waiting and the next
day yes indeed there it is doesn't seem
to have spread the cancer because what
you don't want cancer to do is to spread
from one one area to another metastasis
they call it if you didn't want it to
metastasize spread its cells to send
them all over the place because then
you've got a heck of a job dealing with
it there didn't seem to be metastases
but one of the lymph nodes there they
surround the lymph nodes around the
prostate or necklace and one of them had
something which called for active
surveillance according to the collie the
radio a radiologist to have looked at
the image and so I went again see Roger
the urologist and he doctored the PET
scan and
the MRI scan and the biopsy results and
we had a couple of options one was
radiotherapy but that's a very long and
difficult process I mean it's fine for
some people but there were a number of
issues with it for me and I won't go
into the full details you have to weigh
these things up and and the other was to
get rid of the prostate to get it out
using a process known as radical
laparoscopic prostatectomy robotic no
less radical robotic laparoscopic
prostatectomy in other words sending
little robots in through tiny holes that
are pierced in your tummy and that's
what the operation we decided on should
be because he also wanted to take out
some some of the some of the lymph nodes
just in case there was a spread there so
where are we now where we were in
December is nearly Christmas so an
operation is decided on and in the first
week of January I had the operation cut
to the chase and it all seemed to go
pretty well they took the prostate out
they took out 11 lymph nodes the the the
various bits that were taken out within
examined and it was discovered in fact
that I had a Gleason score of 9 not of 8
and considering 10 is the maximum this
was clearly rather than aggressive
little bugger so what makes what do you
have to recover and that's what I've
been doing and in case you've been
wondering where I've been out of the
public eye but I have been keeping my
head down as much as possible because
obviously you want to get better without
without strangers with the best intent
in the world sending you all kinds of
cards and flowers and letters because
you have to answer them all and I wasn't
quite up to that it's a it's a bit of a
business having an operation like that
it's like me there are five holes
punctured in you so it's like being
stabbed five times admittedly you're
asleep and it's all very antiseptic and
hygienic and so on and like a stabbing
in the street but here to the body it's
the same it's the same rather traumatic
effect and you think you're gonna
recover really well but it takes longer
than
longer than it might and it's all pretty
undignified and unfortunate so my family
and my divine darling husband of course
were just marvelous and those few
friends that have been very discreet and
kind about it because cancer you know in
the end that's a word that just rings in
your head cancer I've got cancer I went
around saying Amazon I've got cancer
good FM Steven you know that's a person
who gets cancer I mean I know it's an
old cliche but you don't think it's
gonna happen to you cancer is something
that happens to other people you're
probably now looking into my eyes and
seeing oh yes I can see he's the kind of
cancer II person I can see that that's
how one looks of people who've got
cancer almost wonder is there a
particular smell but a good aura they
give off of that cancer what a horrible
word it is it's one of our real taboo
words isn't it
I need one old woman who couldn't even
say it she couldn't say death or killed
or died or any of those words or cancer
she wants to describe someone as having
M of her because it is it's something if
you have Tourette's you might say cancer
a lot it's just one of those shocking
hard difficult words and so far has been
only it's all it's all been got other
greater chances me of me getting other
kinds of cancer now apparently not if
you get prostate cancer you don't
necessarily find yourself more
susceptible to other kinds hmm but I
won't know for sure until my PSA levels
are checked and they should be zero now
because I have no prostate so the
prostate specific antigen the PSA level
should be zero but if there is anything
left on the bed of the prostate where
they've taken it out then maybe that
will spread and I'll needing
radiotherapy and adult
damn thing I'll start again but for the
moment I'm fit and well and happy and I
just wanted to let you know because
rumors had started to swirl you know
good good goodness knows you know I'm
not the most important person in the
world but if you are ever on television
and do things in the public eye people
naturally who seem to exhibit great
interest in the newspaper had called up
and I thought well before before the
gossip gets silly and ill-informed and
as well coming clean so they were
Stephen Fry my my fight with cancer
cause it wasn't a fight I just submitted
and that the surgeon and the
certain Ben was wonderful and Roger the
urologist was wonderful I'm turning my
doctor wonderful generally felt my life
was saved by this early intervention so
I would urge any of you men of a certain
age to think about getting up here as a
levels checked and then of course it's
all about discussing what they what the
outcome what the plan should be with you
with your specialist and your doctor and
I can't tell you how fortunate I'm yes I
did go Private Eye I'm insured my Union
the Screen Actors Guild insures me in
America and I'm sure they were here too
and I don't think in fact I know because
my surgeon works mostly for the National
Health and does exactly the same
procedure all the time for all kinds of
men because one in eight men will get
prostate cancer at some kind some
sometime in their life it's over taking
breast cancers you may know but which is
not particularly important it's not a
rival match or anything and it's one in
four if you're of African descent
that's the epidemiology of it and so it
really is very likely that that if
you're a man or not very likely but it's
there's a strong possibility that you
you will you know get it and so you so
it's worth checking out psays and then
going from there it isn't always
necessary to have it out in the way I
have I'm not saying that's of course
always the answer it's the answer is to
to discuss these things with your doctor
does that seem really I don't want to
take up any more of your time thank you
for for listening and watching um and
yeah just get yourself checked and
follow your doctor's advice in all these
matters but otherwise I'm lucky lucky
lucky to be surrounded by such wonderful
people lucky to find such an incredible
team working with me and for me and and
lucky of course to have an immune system
because that's the real hero of these
things it's the recovery which is so
phenomenal from from an operation and
yeah here's hoping anyway let's say
here's everything I get another few
years left on this planet because I
enjoy I feel at the moment and that's a
mother's thing to be able to say and
brother it didn't go away so thanks
again this really is the end
