'Men get breast cancer too - I was one of them'

A man who discovered he had breast cancer after finding a "pea-sized" lump has called for the screening age for both men and women to be lowered.

Philip Alderson, from New Brighton, Wirral, was diagnosed with stage 2 breast cancer in July 2016 at the age of 44.

The now 53-year-old, who has been given the all-clear, said he believed there should be routine testing for men as well as women, and both should start at 40.

Mr Alderson, who found the lump while play-fighting with his little girl, said: "Most blokes would have probably ignored it because it was so small, but I thought I am not going to be one of those blokes - I always say that saved my life."

Around 55,000 women and 400 men are diagnosed with breast cancer every year in the UK, according to Breast Cancer Now.

Breast cancer in men is rare with just 400 new cases in the UK each year, compared to around 55,000 new cases in women.

Screening for women starts at age 50, but there is no routine screening for men.

The father-of-one said he did not want to do the "blokey thing" and ignore it, so went to the doctors the day after finding the lump.

Two weeks later he received scans and a biopsy at Clatterbridge Hospital, in Wirral, where he had it confirmed it was breast cancer.

He said: "There's a bit of a stigma attached to it, with it being breast cancer, but when you hear the c-word it is pretty terrifying.

"Four weeks after being told, I went back to the hospital on the women's ward to have the mastectomy, which was strange."

Mr Alderson was given the all-clear in September 2016. He has launched a petition, which has raised more than 4,500 signatures, calling for the lower screening age.

He said while the statistics for men are small compared with those for women, men's breast cancer needed to be talked about just as much to make men comfortable about going to their doctor over it.

He added: "Going to the doctors straight away saved a lot of physical stress. I am grateful I caught it early because a lot of doctors have never seen a man with breast cancer.

"I could have ignored it and the GP could have said to come back in a couple of months, which I know happens to some men and younger women.

"But getting it detected early could be the difference between having surgery or aggressive chemotherapy."

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