So that’s- that’s the way, how it all happens, and that’s why I say you know, went to the pub when I’d been diagnosed, I said right lads, task for tonight is to feel your nipple. They said, What do you mean I explained it and one or two guys said, Ooh, oo. I said when you get home, have a quiet feel, I mean I hope there’s nobody her, I said cause it’s a very low percentage of people have it, but if I stop one more person having a problem I’ve done you know, I’ve done my job shall we sa. So it’s quite interesting. And how one of the lads have said, it was a shock, again one lad said I didn’t know you could get breast cancer. I said well, you know, we’re only slightly different from women you know.

There is a dearth of information about male [breast cancer], and it sort of infers that it is solely a female problem, yes I mean. I suppose if you go back ten years probably yeah that was true, but now it isn’t true and I thinkit… I suppose, again having access to the internet, and I alwaysI have a theory, it’s out there somewhere, it may take you a few minutes to find it, or a few hours to find it, but you can find websites about it. But its not- when you put in, you type in breast cancer and the first website that comes up won’t necessarily refer to- it can happen in men. Again, because I think the diagnosis by men is- I mean I can’t speak for every man but the majority of men I think probably don’t examine their breasts. I never did, you know, I’m not afraid to admit it. One of the lads in the pub said, Well, the gays’ll find it quick enough won’t they [Laughing] But that’s- slightly homophobic but, okay. But yeah, I mean it’s probably a comment, you know that- as I say, when I see people on- stripped off, I always have a look now, I mean normally I would never look. Cause one day I might say, Hey hang on, I don’t want to panic you but-you know. But, yes it’s like everything else isn’t it, if you’re not aware of what to look for you don’t know- as Rumsfelt said, We don’t know what we don’t know’, which is very true. So, yeah.

Did you use the internet a lot to look for information, through your treatment or-?

Not through my treatment no, I looked at it initially but sort of. Cause there’s so limited information anyway so, it isn’t really a great help but.

Were you offered at the time, any support such as going to support group or speaking to someone else about it?

Yeah, they have a lady at [name of hospital] who’s there most of the time, there’s a room for coffee, and she’s a sort of support officer. I was taken there and shown that and if I wanted to come. And in fact, I was having a chemo- waiting for chemo and the nurse said, Do you want to go and talk to a support office. So I said, Well all righ, you know, Especially when the lad next door, he’s about twenty and he’s got to have another ninety chemotherapy sessions. So I thought, rather puts me in perspective. [Laughs] You know, he was bald and you know, he looked, he looked ill. I don’t know if I looked ill or not, but he looked ill. And I thought, well, I used to sit there on a Monday afternoon, have to look around and I’d think nothing wrong with you lad. [Laughs] Compared to what other people have got.

Yeah. So when you were getting your chemotherapy, could you chat to other people? Could you all sort of- or were you in a little bay?

I was probably as far away from the next person as I am to you, but we were side on, that way. So you could talk to the nurse obviously cause she was watching you but towards the end, after I’d had a couple of sessions I used to wander off, cause they knew I would sit there and, fall asleep. But yes.

When we started doing this study we were using the term male breast cancer, I was just wondering if you had any opinion on that term?

It is what it is, isn’t it? It’s breast cancer. There’s, there’s no point in pussy footing around, I mean it’s cancer of the breast isn’t it, in the man? Oh yeah that’s a-

That’s all right.

Well I’m an engineer so I believe in facts are facts, so it- yeah it’s- I mean I don’t believe he’s a rodent catcher, he’s a rat catcher isn’t he? [Laughs]

I think some men felt that when we were using the term male breast cancer we were making it sound as though it was something different, because when we talk about breast cancer people assume it’s women, and we don’t talk about female breast cancer.

No but yeah but I think it is- it’s semantics isn’t it really? If someone says to me you’ve got male breast cancer, that’ll not worry me because it is- you know- I suppose it is subtly different isn’t it, because women get all sorts of problems don’t they?

So were you given a choice in your treatment?

Well I was just told what they were going to do. You know it was have the breast off, chemotherapy and radiotherapy. I did query the radiotherapy with my GP, cause I got a little bit of a sense that the- the guy that does the chemotherapy and that was a- oh yes, boom boom boom without any thought. I got a little bit of, you know, I felt the- cause the surgeon, okay I saw him, and then the chemotherapy by another- a doctor. And I was- anyway, fortunately the- my surgeon who I got on very well with, he had written a letter to my GP, recommending the treatment that I had. So I was quite happy about that. But it was the sort of cavalier way in which it was presented to me, and I thought, hang about a bit, you know.

On my first set of chemo, I had it on the Monday, and I’d read the booklet, it said if your temperature is thirty eight, for- after two hours. Well on the Sunday I had quite a high temperature, so I rang the hospital up and she says, Come i. So I went in and they obviously.., so she said, We’ll have to keep you in overnigh. So I said, Why Well, [laughs] there’s a bit of a saga there, because [name of hospital] has no, blood analysis facilities, it took them three goes, cause they have to send it from [name of hospital], to [name of another hospital] which is quite a distance as you probably know. So when they discovered that- I can’t remember what it was, but one of the components of my body- blood was point one, lifted to point one, which is literally immeasurable, normally it’s fourteen, they kept me in for three days, and I had a severe infection. And so, the- when I came out the sister was in her forties, sat me down and she says, Right, I want you to listen what I’m going to say to yo and she said, You were very seriously ill and you didn’t realise i. She said, it was an infectio, she said, can you try and keep away from public place, she says and when you do a job like cutting the grass which I’m sure you will, if you feel tired sit down, and-. And I said okay, it’s like eating elephants, bite it off slowly. So, the Friday night prior to the Sunday, we have an old gentleman’s club in the pub where we put the world to rights. So I’d been to the pub. Now pub glasses are notoriously not cleaned properly. So I completely stopped going, to anything like that. And I went out obviously but, I didn’t eat or drink outside. And I kept- for the whole rest of the period I was perfectly all right.