A Co Cavan man has emphasised the importance of looking after your health and taking up regular blood tests.
Damien Brady who is a local councillor and firefighter from Ballyconnell received a cancer diagnosis earlier this year in a routine blood test at the doctor's. He was pro-active in attending regular blood tests in previous years and in January of this year, his tests showed that he had prostate cancer.
Speaking to Northern Sound, the local man said the initial shock of the diagnose floored him on January 9th. Towards the end of January, Damien had an operation and all going well following further tests, all will be clear.
This week marks International Men's Health Week which runs until this Sunday the 15th of June. The local man says timing is everything which leads to early diagnose and he's encouraging the men of the region to take up routine blood tests.
Cllr Brady said, "men are not very, very good at going to the doctors, but the most important thing, if anything can come from this interview today, is getting this early."
The Ballyconnell native said he can't highlight how important timing is and getting it early; "mine was lost and confined to cancer and was confined to my prostate and I was got early, and that's one of the reasons I don't have to have treatment, provided the next set of tests come back clear.
"So early diagnosis is very, very important, and especially for all people's health, especially men who are fearful of going to the doctor and ignore the symptoms. You know, getting up and going to the toilet at night a few times can be symptoms. There's other lots of other symptoms there but I have to say that, you know, you cannot ignore the signs."
