Outraged Cancer Survivor Rod Stewart, 78, Offers To Pay For Millions of Cancer Scans Amid UK Health Service Crisis

“I would like to pay for 10 or 20 scans. I don’t know how we’re going to work this but hopefully, some other people will follow,” Stewart said during his phone-in with a Sky News anchor who was shocked to hear from the singer.

“It seems ridiculous that this particular scanning clinic was empty and there are people dying because they cannot get scans,” Stewart added, recounting when he recently went to a clinic for a checkup.

“Now listen to me, I don’t need the publicity, I just want to do some good things and this, I think is a good thing. If other people follow me, I’d love it.”

Bringing politics into the conversation, Stewart said, “I personally have been a Tory for a long time, but I think this Government should stand down now and give the Labor Party a go at it because this is heart-breaking for the nurses, it really is heartbreaking.”

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“In all my years of living in this country I’ve never seen it so bad, and anything I can do to help. Go on, the nurses. I’m on your side,” he continued.

Stewart, who is set to kick off his North America 2023 in just weeks, phoned in on Sky News after listening to other viewers complaining about the health system, with one claiming to be waiting three years for an appointment.

The rockstar clearly has a long way to go before retiring with plenty more tour dates on the way. And it’s nice to see the prostate cancer survivor still doing what brings him happiness, yet also making time to care for others.

Within the past few months, NHS workers, such as nurses and ambulance staff, have been on strike and thousands more are set to go on strike this week.

According to the Guardian, NHS Chief Executive Amanda Pritchard said this month, “As the strike action is extended over long periods of time, and as those dates start coming closer together, it does get more challenging, there is absolutely no doubt. It is clearly having an impact. I think that’s obvious.”

Rod Stewart’s Battle with Thyroid Cancer

When Rod Stewart was diagnosed with thyroid cancer over 20 years ago, he briefly feared that the disease would rob him of his voice.

Appearing on the British talk show Loose Women, Stewart talked about the alarm he experienced one morning when he woke up and “couldn’t sing a note.”

The singer played down his thyroid cancer battle, however, saying: “I had a touch of thyroid cancer; it was over and out within 10 minutes.”

Stewart then explained to the hosts that he did not  “want to pretend I fought cancer for months and months” because, in his case, “it was really easy to get rid of.”

Going Public with Prostate Cancer

After keeping his 2016 prostate cancer diagnosis private, Stewart revealed in 2019 that he had battled the disease  and urged other men to keep up on their recommended screenings for prostate cancer. The Maggie May singer made the announcement at a fundraising event for the Prostate Project and the European Tour Foundation in Surrey, England.

Stewart explained that he was first diagnosed with the disease during a routine screening checkup — and got the all-clear from his doctors in July 2019.

He joked that he’d told his wife that he needed to “come out” — then quickly added, “No, it’s not what you think. [Three] years ago, I was diagnosed with prostate cancer.”

“I’m in the clear, now, simply because I caught it early. I have so many tests,” the singer said of his diagnosis and treatment. “Guys you’ve really got to go to the doctor … Finger up the bum, no harm done.”

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Stewart’s Cancer: “Quite Aggressive”

“We kept it quiet for two and a half years now,” Stewart’s wife, Penny Lancaster, said in an emotional 2019 interview about her husband’s cancer on a British tv talk show. “But the positive news is we caught it early enough.”

“It was quite aggressive and it came on really quickly,” Lancaster noted. “Instead of remaining in the [prostate] gland, it had left the gland and traveled to the outside tissues.”

According to Lancaster, Stewart couldn’t be treated with surgery alone. “Knowing it had traveled outside, we couldn’t have the gland removed, so he had to have a three-month intensive course of radiation, traveling into London the same time every single day, going to the clinic.”

Screening For Prostate Cancer

The PSA (or protein-specific antigen) test is a blood test that can screen for prostate cancer, and can also track a patient’s response to treatment. Typically when a man goes in for prostate cancer screening, doctors will do a PSA test and a digital rectal exam — where the doctor touches the prostate gland through the rectum. A lot of men are wary of going in for these tests, but experts assure that the PSA and digital rectal exams are quick, and mostly non-invasive.

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In a previous conversation with SurvivorNet, Dr. Edwin Posadas of Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, explained the simple tests. “No man is really excited about having a rectal examination … honestly, it takes less than 30 seconds to get it done, it’s relatively painless. I’m not saying it’s comfortable, but at the same time the amount of information that is gained from that can be tremendous,” Dr. Posadas said.

Understanding Risk Factors

In the United States, many prostate cancer cases are caught with screening examinations. Screening guidelines depend on your risk for the disease. Age, race/ethnicity, geography, family history and gene changes are the main risk factors for prostate cancer. You should talk with your doctor regardless, but here are some things to consider when gauging your risk for the disease:

• Men younger than 40 are less likely to get prostate cancer, but age-related risk quickly rises after age 50. Approximately six of ten cases of prostate cancer are found in men older than 65.
• Prostate cancer develops more often in African-American men and in Caribbean men of African ancestry than in men of other races, and these men tend to develop the disease at a younger age.
• Prostate cancer is most common in North America, northwestern Europe, Australia and on Caribbean islands. It is less common in Asia, Africa, Central America and South America. The reasons for this risk factor are unclear, but more intensive screening and lifestyle differences like diet might be contributing factors.
• Most prostate cancers occur in men without a family history of the disease, but it’s still important to look at your family history because prostate cancer does seem to run in some families. Having a father or brother with prostate cancer, for instance, more than doubles a man’s risk of developing the disease with a higher risk for men with a brother with prostate cancer than those with a father who have it. The risk is also especially high if a man has several affected relatives that developed the cancer at a younger age.
• Inherited gene changes, or mutations, like that of the BRCA1 or BRCA2 genes can also elevate risk, but this probably accounts for a small percentage of overall cases.

It’s not clear if the benefits of prostate cancer screening outweigh the risks for most men. Nevertheless, screening can be life-saving, and it’s important to at least discuss the pros and cons of screening and your risk factors for the disease with your doctor.

Contributing: SurvivorNet Staff

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