‘Don’t give me medals for being heroic. I’d rather not be’

The farmer from Avenel had just turned 50 when he went to see his doctor.

“I remember something wasn’t quite right. That’s the way I would describe it,” he said.

“The first thing I’d say is my symptoms were extraordinarily small, so there wasn’t anything that was really coming out at me and ringing alarm bells. I just knew something wasn’t quite right.”

Elevated PSA, or prostate-specific antigen test levels, indicated he had prostate cancer.

“At this stage, I must admit, I was really fit for a bloke of my age,” Mr Madden said.

“I was very fit. Cycled a lot, a lot of farm work, carting hay. So physically, I was in really good condition, and so when you’re told by that specialist that you’ll do some tests, but that will show you’ve got prostate cancer, I’m thinking to myself, ‘But I feel really good’.”

That was the start of a most challenging journey for Mr Madden and his family of treatments that sometimes seemed worse than the ailment.

“It’s not just a cancer issue; there are myriad other issues that can come and visit you, and at this stage (of the treatment), the cancer hadn’t done me any damage. It was the other things,” he said.

“You end up with a urinary bag, basically, because that whole area broke down.

“They’re some of the things people don’t often talk about. The sexual dysfunction that it gives you with it (prostate) out, but also the urinary dysfunction that you get at the same time and for a lot of men, I don’t think any of them want any of that to happen to them, but that’s what you’re putting at risk if you don’t tend to it.”

In the time he has been fighting his fight, though, the medications have changed a lot, and his latest treatment has had few to no side effects.

“It’s only a new drug, so my strategy of hanging around for them is working,” he said.

The message that ‘the earlier men get on top of their health issues, the better’ remains absolutely relevant, though.

It’s a theme the Biggest Ever Blokes Lunch in Shepparton on Friday, October 13 wants to get across. The event is sold out, but the message that men must be vigilant with their health is still being spread.

Mr Madden’s sharing of his own experience, the illness, the treatments and their combined effects on him is done with a bluntness and detail that should leave other men in no doubt of the importance of taking an active role in their health.

“Now, I would say to fellas, just think of it as part of going to the doctors ... when you’re there, get them to test for the PSA. Don’t wait until you’re 50. Get it done earlier,” he said.

“I had prostate cancer from my early 40s right the way through. Even though there’s opportunities for blood tests and that PSA box to be ticked, it never was because it wasn’t policy to do it (before 50).”

They’re challenges that have tested him to the limit. In those times, he sought help because, like the body, the mind can also need treatment.

“If you need help, go and get it,” he said.

“I used to say open the front door and let it all in, but make sure you open the back door at the same time and let it out. Don’t let it put its stuff in the spare bedroom. Tell it to piss off out the back.”

The long battle, not only with the illness but also with the medications, has given him time, time to be part of life’s milestones that many take for granted.

“You have things to look forward to. Just the other week, our first granddaughter was born, so you realise that’s what you’re hanging around for,” he said.

Friends have told him he’s brave and praised his approach to life, but he’d rather be good at something else.

“I’d rather not be; I wish I didn’t have it,” he said.

“I’ve got it; I’ve got to deal with it, so don’t give me medals for being heroic. I’d rather not be.

“I don’t see it as a sad story; it’s just my story. My journey.

“The journey’s not finished, and it hasn’t been written yet.”