Shifting Gears in Prostate Cancer Screening
A conversation with Errol McKellar
Joining me today is Errol McKellar, founder of the Errol McKellar Foundation which is dedicated to raising awareness of men’s health and in particular prostate cancer in the black community.
Errol has a legendary status in the London youth football community, having been a coach and scout for over 50 years and supporting the rise of premiership and England players Beckham, Cole and Campbell. His car repair garage in Hoxton has also become legendary – featuring in a documentary on his community now on Amazon prime and most impactfully as an information channel to black men about their health, and it’s this latter point that brings Errol to talk with me today.
Errol was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2010 and since then has dedicated himself to informing & supporting men especially those in the black community about prostate cancer and, in particular, the importance of getting screened. He’s been highly recognised for his services.
Errol is one of Prostate Cancer UK’s main ambassadors and, along with Linford Christie, David Haye, Danny John-Jules, Viv Anderson, Chuka Umunna and Benjamin Zephaniah is fronting their Stronger Knowing More campaign, which encourages black men to get PSA tests.
In 2012 Errol was chosen to be one of the Olympic torch bearers in Hackney and in 2016 his volunteer work in the community was recognised by the Prime Minister when he was presented with a Points of Light Award. In 2018 Errol set up and launched The Errol McKellar Foundation and was invited to 10 Downing Street to talk to the Prime Minister, Secretary of State for Health and the Head of NHS England about the prostate cancer awareness work his new charity will undertake.
In 2018 Errol was awarded a NHS Heroes Award for his services to volunteering, and in October 2020, he was awarded an MBE for services for prostate cancer.
Errol McKellar Foundationhttps://www.theerrolmckellarfoundation.com/#The Streethttps://www.imdb.com/title/tt10999260/
Clare Delmar
Hello and welcome to On Focus brought to you by The Focal Therapy Clinic, where we engage you with issues facing men diagnosed with prostate cancer that are little known, less understood, often avoided or even ignored. Prostate cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer amongst men in the UK, and with this sombre fact comes a multitude of challenges and opportunities. This is our first interview of 2022, and I want to wish all our listeners a very Happy New Year. I’m Clare Delmar. Joining me today is Errol McKellar, founder of the Errol McKellar Foundation, which is dedicated to raising awareness of men’s health and in particular, prostate cancer in the black community. Errol has a legendary status in the London youth football community, having been a coach and scout for over 50 years and supporting the rise of Premiership and England players. Beckham Cole and Campbell. His car repair garage in Hoxton, has also become legendary. Featuring in a documentary on his community, now showing on Amazon Prime and most impactful as an information channel to black men about their health. And it’s this latter point that brings Errol to talk with me today. Ariel was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2010 and since then has dedicated himself to informing and supporting men, especially those in the black community, about prostate cancer and in particular, the importance of getting screened. He’s been highly recognised for his services. Errol is one of Prostate Cancer UK’s main ambassadors and along with Linford Christie, David Haye, Danny John-Jules, Viv Anderson, Chuka Umunna and Benjamin Zephaniah, he’s fronting their Stronger Knowing More campaign, which encourages black men to get PSA tests. In 2012, Earl was chosen to be one of the Olympic torch bearers in Hackney, and in 2016 his volunteer work in the community was recognised by the prime minister when he was presented with a Point of Lights award. And in 2018, he set up and launched the Errol McKellar Foundation, being invited, following that to ten Downing Street to talk to the Prime Minister, Secretary of State for Health and the head of NHS England about the prostate cancer awareness work his new charity will undertake. In 2018, Earl was awarded an NHS Heroes Award for his services to volunteering, and in October 2020 he was awarded an MBE Services to raising the awareness of prostate cancer. Well, that is quite a CV and we have a lot to live up to, but I’m delighted to introduce our role. It’s an honour, it’s a pleasure to have him here today. Errol, thank you so much for joining me today.
Errol McKellar
Thank you very much for inviting me to come and share my journey with prostate cancer and thank you for your listeners, you know, for hopefully listening to what I have to say and helping us to do something about the issues with prostate cancer.
Clare Delmar
Awesome. Well, let’s get cracking. You’ve got a few questions that we’ve talked about and now we can share those with our listeners. And I think I mean, I’ve said a lot, but there’s obviously a lot more about your background, and I think it would be really great to start by having you tell us a little bit about your experience with prostate cancer and how this is motivated you to set up the foundation.
Errol McKellar
Thank you. I mean, as you’ve said, you know my name is Errol McKellar, I’m a prostate cancer survivor and I’m the founder of the Errol McKellar Foundation. And my journey with prostate cancer started at the end of 2010, when my wife, Sharon, bless her, was complaining about my snoring. And, you know, before we go any further, snoring has nothing to do with prostate cancer, but the reason why I mention it is because a lot of times people find out about their illnesses with prostate cancer purely by accident. What happened to myself. So going back to the story, I turn to Sharon. I said, Look, if this snoring bothers you that much, if you make an appointment with the doctor, I’ll go and a warning to all men. You know, if you ever ask a woman to do something, expect her to do it because that’s what will happen.
Clare Delmar
Indeed, indeed
Errol McKellar
I knew you were going to come to say something there. I went to the doctor, sat down in the reception room, right? I read a leaflet and decided right that I was going to go to the reception and make an appointment to come back and do this test. When I got to the desk. The young lady said, Mr McKellar, you don’t have to make an appointment. This is a simple blood test and it takes less than ten minutes. Well, I’ve got to tell you little did I ever imagine at the time that that ten minutes was going to change the rest of my life. I did the blood tests. I sat back down and waited for the doctor to see about the snoring. I even remember going home that night, and the wife was cooking dinner at the time, and I turned to her and I said, Oh, by the way, while I was waiting to see the doctor about the snoring, I did a blood test for prostate cancer
Clare Delmar
Well, can I can I interrupt you for one second? Because this is fascinating about the fact that you were actually offered the test on the spot, because this is this is actually a first hurdle that a lot of men face that they can’t even get the test. So I’m intrigued that a) the reason why you went to your GP, which we’re going to come back to, I know about the story, but I’m also interested in the fact that, you know, you were able to get that test on the spot. Is that unusual in your experience?
Errol McKellar
Well, I have learnt since that, you know, something that it’s not always readily available. You have to make an appointment to have that test done. So I’m assuming that the time that I walked into the doctor’s surgery, they were offering this test anyway, you know, so that’s why when I went to make the appointment thinking that I was going to make an appointment like you always have to do in when you go to the doctors. But I’d have to go and make the appointment to come back and do the test, but what’s happening was, I think that was a week when they were offering the test and they gave it to me there and then and, you know, so I had no choice of avoiding it because I said, you know, my thoughts was never to go and immediately do the test. My thoughts was to go and make an appointment to come back and do the test
Clare Delmar
nSo you were lucky. You’re lucky
Errol McKellar
I was. And this is why this is why I’m saying to people, you know, if you go back to the beginning of the story where the only reason why I was at the doctors is because I was snoring. And luckily, that led onto me doing the test, and this is where we are with it today. So I had the first first blood test. A week after the first first blood test. You know, I’ve got a phone call. Could I come in to do a second blood test, you know? So I said to the doctors, Hey, you know anything? Or I said, Yeah, you know, it’s a routine thing. We like to do a follow up on things that you know, we do, and I just took it, okay. Well, that’s general conversation. I went in. I had the second blood test. One week after that second blood test, I get a phone call and the doctor, says “Mr. McKellar. We’ve booked you in for a biopsy.” So I said, “Oh, OK, well, when are we going to do this then?” He said, “Well, we’ve actually booked you in this morning. So we, you know, have given you a phone call to see if you’re available to come in this morning and do the biopsy.”
Clare Delmar
Wow
Errol McKellar
Yeah, well, you know, I said, OK and then I put the phone down and I phoned my wife and I said, You know, I’ve just had a phone call from the doctor. They’ve actually booked me in to have a biopsy. So she said, “Well, when did I want to do this?” And I said, “Well, I’ve actually done it for me this morning. They want me to come down to the hospital this morning.” So she said, “OK, don’t drive. Get a cab and I will meet you at the hospital.”
Clare Delmar
And quick question, quick question. I mean, did you have any idea what a prostate biopsy entailed?
Errol McKellar
No. Well, let me let me tell you, let me explain to you. This is an interesting question that you’ve asked, because just before I put the phone down, I said, by the way, “what is a biopsy?” and the answer that my wife gave me, she said it’s nothing to worry about. It’s something that we women have to go through all the time. It’s quite routine. So I just took it. That’s what it was. And I have to be honest, I’m very glad that that’s how she explained it to me because, you know, when I had to have the biopsy, it was very difficult. It was very, very intrusive. And yes, it was painful. But the importance of it is something that you have to have if you want to have a diagnosis of this issue. So I had the biopsy, as I said, very difficult, but something that needed to be done. One week after that biopsy, I was called in to do the scan. I did the scan. A week…
Clare Delmar
nSo this is it referring to an MRI? Correct?n
Errol McKellar
Yes.
Clare Delmar
nWas that was done after the biopsy? Not before.
Errol McKellar
No, no. I had that after the biopsy I had. And this.
Clare Delmar
Was what year 2010.
Errol McKellar
This was. All this all happened in the space of five to six weeks, all of this happened. It was just rapid, very quick, very instant. And you know, then I started to understand that something is wrong because when I had the biopsy, a week after that biopsy, that’s when they called me and my wife and they sat us both down. They said, Mr. Mackellar, we have to tell you that your prostate is covered in cancer. Well, I got up and I walked out the room, I, you know, I think the conversation went right over my head at that time. I came out in the building. I went and I sat in my car and, you know what, to this day, I don’t know whether I was scared or frightened or both. I just remember losing complete control and just bursting into tears, and I felt helpless. I felt lost. I didn’t know what to do next because all through my life, I’ve always been able to understand what I need to do next. What’s you know, what I have to do moving on and things that are important and how I deal with them? But I had no answer for this particular situation. I think the word cancer hit me in such a way that it left me speechless and think-less, if that makes sense.
Clare Delmar
Yeah, yeah, it does.
Errol McKellar
I remember my wife coming into the car and she’s sat in the car with me. And you know, it’s interesting because and this is why it’s very, very important for men to talk to their nearest and dearest right and particularly the women in your life because they end up becoming your carers and your supporters. And no one gets through this illness on their own. She turned to me and said to me. “Look,” she said, “in all the years I’ve been with you, I’ve never seen you quit on anything you’ve ever done.” So I had to wipe the tears from my eyes and I had to man up and I looked at her and I thought, You know, is this her way of having a go at me or is this her way of motivating me to get up and do something about this problem? And I took the letter and I said, Come on and let’s go and face the doctor then. And you know, we came out of the vehicle, went into the building and we sat down with the doctor and I said, Doctor, what do I need to do to deal with this problem? And the doctor looked at me and he said, Mr. McKellar, if we don’t remove your prostate, you could be dead in six months. And I looked at him and I said, Doctor If that’s what I need to do to keep myself alive, then let’s do it. He said there will be some issues you have to deal with. There’ll be some side effects that you’re going to have to come to terms with. I’ve said Doctor And I repeated what I said to him again. I said, Doctor, if I had a chance of staying alive, I will take that. So I had the operation. But by then, the cancer had already started to move, so it had already travelled outside of the the cancer wall, as we call it. So I had to have nearly three months of radiotherapy after that operation. Burn away the rest of that cancer, which was very difficult, but I had no choice because of the issues of the cancer starting to travel. And during that time, you know, I had to really take stock of myself. You know, I was out of work for nearly six months, and I remember sitting down with the wife and saying, Look, you know, I think that I have to thank God for for all of this right, for me still being alive and still being lucky. And I feel that I am lucky because, you know, if my cancer was as bad as what they’re telling me, the fact that I’m still here, I have to thank God for that. And you know, my wife turned to me and she said a very, very inspirational statement, which I take with me every day. And she said, “You know what?” She said, “this cancer only knocked you down. You know, it didn’t. It didn’t knock you out, and you’re going to go to twelve rounds with it. But I think what you’re going to try and do if I know you, you’ll take everybody in the ring with you and give yourself a chance of winning on points.” And every day I look at that statement and every day when I wake up, that’s the statement I wake up with, right? How can I make a difference with this issue? And that’s what I thought when she said it. That’s what I felt I wanted to do. And after being out of work for six months, I went back to work in a garage I used to own in the east end of London in Hackney. Doing car servicing, mechanical repairs, bodywork and MOTs. And I remember having this conversation with the customer that came in, you know, the first day I was back and you know, he was telling me how pleased he was. You know, he heard what I was going for and pleased that, you know, I’m back at work and you know how I’m feeling generally and during the conversation, a pleasant conversation. I sort of turned to him and I don’t even know why it came out of my mouth. But I looked and I said to him, When was the last time you had your prostate checked and the present conversation stopped and he looked at. He said, What the bleep bleep bleep has that got to do with my gearbox not working?
Clare Delmar
And he said a lot, actually.
Errol McKellar
Yeah. So I turned to him again without thinking about it, and I said, I’ll tell you what I said, I’m going to give you a 20% discount on the work I’m going to do on your car if by the time you come back to pick up your car, you get your prostate checked.
Errol McKellar
And you know, I clearly didn’t think this one through when I said it to him because two weeks later, when he came back to pick up his car, you know, he turned to me and he said, I took your advice and he was waving a paper in his hand, and I looked at him and I looked up to the sky and I said, Jesus Christ, this is just cost me 200 quid. And I think he saw the look on my face and he turned to me and he said to me, Listen, he said, You know, I’m not worried about the money, he said. But I think you need to read this letter. And you know, he gave me the letter. And even to this day, I remember the shock when I opened that letter and I read the letter when I read the letter. He had 25% cancer in his prostate, 25%. He was the first of 48 guys that walked into my garage in Hackney. Hoxton, right. The East End, right? 48 men that walked into my garage that was diagnosed with prostate cancer. They may have been more. The ones that came in and told me so you know, this became for me something that I felt I needed to do. And you know, and what was frightening about it is there is over 47,000 men a year that are diagnosed with this particular problem.
Clare Delmar
Yes.
Errol McKellar
There is over 11,000 men that die of prostate cancer in this country every year. That is one man every 45 minutes that will die of prostate cancer. So by the end of this day, we have lost 129 men to think.
Clare Delmar
Yep.
Errol McKellar
It’s currently one in twelve Asian men who die of prostate cancer is currently one in eight white men who die of prostate cancer. More frighteningly, it’s currently one in four African Caribbean men who die of prostate cancer. And if it’s in your family, then the risk are even higher.
Clare Delmar
Yes, indeed. Indeed, that’s what I think. You know, it’s so important that you’re focussing on these communities. Can I ask you about the key messages you want to get out to to these men and their families, and particularly these men, particularly black men, where the burden is one in four, as you’ve just cited. So they’re at higher risk that you know, they can understand what that means. one in four as opposed to one in age or one in twelve. And so how do you shape that message to them about being a) aware b) concerned and c) willing to do something about it?
Errol McKellar
Well, you know, you know, what I’ve tried to do is is you have to put this message over with some some seriousness, but with an element of of ease so that you can people can digest it, you know, because if you give them too much fear, right, The two biggest problems that I find in getting this message across is the fear and the ignorance. The fear, because once they are told about prostate cancer, the fear is to to eliminate it and hope that it doesn’t happen to you. And the ignorance is if it does unfortunately happen to you, you choose to do nothing about it and hope it’s going to go away and those two elements. So the message that I try to get across is, gentlemen. Prostate cancer affects the one in twelve, one in eight, one in four. But let me tell you the truth about prostate cancer. Prostate cancer don’t care about your colour. Prostate cancer, don’t care about your wealth. Prostate cancer doesn’t actually care about you. What it does if you ignore it, it will kill you. Each race has to understand that the seriousness of this is if it’s caught early, we have almost 100% success rate in coming out the other side.
Clare Delmar
Very powerful, very powerful message. So in terms of the what they can do about it, I believe and you’ve just mentioned about the PSA test, I believe that one of your main implementation driven missions is to make the PSA test more available and accessible to men in your community. Is that correct?
Errol McKellar
Yeah, yeah. And you know, the reason why is because the demographics of everything now is almost mobile as we speak. You know, one thing what COVID has forced everyone to do is to think out the box. You know, I’m a mechanic. So what I say to people is quite simple. Every year you have to MOT your car. Every year you have to tax your car. Every year you have to insure your car. Yet these are three elements within us as human beings that we should be doing right. I would like to have a PSA test done every single year because you know what I’m saying to somebody is early detection is very, very important. Now, would you drive your car with no brakes and wait until you’ve knocked somebody over before you do something about it? Or would you deal with it now? And it’s no different to dealing with the PSA. If you have a PSA now and something flags up, it’s easier to deal with it than leave it for a year for it to fester longer and the problems become more serious than it was a year ago. Yeah, there are challenges because and the challenges are quite simple one driver. The fact is the PSA is not 100%.
Clare Delmar
I wanted to ask you about that because as you well know, the test itself is not without its detractors. And so, so how are you addressing this in both the design and the implementation of this testing service you want to do.
Errol McKellar
What we’re saying is is that currently what we are offering has a 98% success rate. At this moment, the PSA is the only thing on the table, right? So, OK, the PSA may not be 100%. Let’s work towards making it 100%. You know, if we’re 98% success rate, let’s work to get it to that 100%. But in the meantime, we can’t have people dying through fear and ignorance because they choose to do nothing about it.
Clare Delmar
Absolutely. So what does that mean? How do you make something 100%, as you say, is it a question of you’re not going to redesign the blood test?
Errol McKellar
No, we’re not going to redesign the blood test. Well, you know what’s important? It’s important that people are involved in the testing. It’s important that people are involved in the research because it’s the research and the testing that’s going to improve the end result, right? You know, twelve years ago when I had my test done and I had my operation, you know, I’ve spent the last five years involved in the research work, and the research work is far, far more than it was when it was done before. But people, you know, as brilliant as all that work is, if people are not aware of it, they will still have this attitude that, you know, I don’t want anything put up my rear end, you know, I don’t want, you know, the word biopsy puts people off. But what I say to men when I have this conversation, I said, If you think that that’s difficult, ask a woman what she has to go through when she has to have her bits and pieces done right. You know, on a regular basis, you know, they have to deal with things that we as men become very squeamish about. But in its more important content that, you know, prostate is something that needs a lot more research and a lot more education. You know, the education is key because, you know, at this moment, I’m dealing with 14, 15, 16 year olds who don’t even know where their prostates are.
Clare Delmar
Yeah, yeah.
Errol McKellar
This means that we have to educate a lot earlier. We have to go into schools to educate because if we got boys of 14, 15, 16, I don’t know where their prostate is. We moved on to ten years. There will only be at the beginning of that journey, you know, where it is at the moment will have ladies who are learning about periods and understanding more. Young men still don’t know the issues with prostate cancer, and one of the things that I’m worried about is, you know, you know, there’s a community that, you know, if there’s an excuse for not doing the tests, then they’re not doing the test, right? And when they go to their doctors, what we want the doctor to do is to do the test on them, encourage them to do so because we don’t have an alternative. There is nothing, you know, the only blood test that we have available for test in prostate cancer is the PSA test.
Clare Delmar
Yeah. Well, and again, as you say, I mean, it gets better if that’s even a reasonable term, when you add on the other diagnostic bits. But I want to come back to something you just said, which I’m particularly interested in and you’ve mentioned quite a lot of things and I just want to link up, you mentioned about COVID and some of the things we’ve learnt, you mentioned about sort of, you know, boys not knowing about their own anatomy and managing that. But I guess, you know, COVID has revealed so many health inequalities, even that term is something that I think more and more people are familiar with. And you know, one of the things about prostate cancer is there’s always been health inequalities in diagnosis and treatment because, you know, as you say, one in four people in the black community are diagnosed, where one in eight people in the non-black community are diagnosed. So that’s a pretty strong inequality like 50%, you know. And I guess one of the questions I have for you is why do you think this persists and what are your observations? What are people telling you that give you evidence as to why it persists?
Errol McKellar
Well, I’m going to give you the answer to the first part of that question. The reason why I personally feel that this is in existence is because men in general and particularly African Caribbean men are diagnosed late. If this test is made available, then there shouldn’t be a reason for you to be diagnosed late for this. You know, the one thing that everybody’s agreed on, whether they agree or disagree, the one thing they agree on is early detection is key. So early detection has to be presented almost like a plate of food that you look at anything, you know what, I need to have some of that food. If there’s a fear factor involved in this, then that pushes people away.
Clare Delmar
Yeah. So it’s got to be normalised?
Errol McKellar
It has to be normalised. And, you know, listen, what men have got, we can learn a lot from the women in our lives, right? Because you ladies were proactive in getting your bits and pieces done and getting it sanctioned and authorised right by protesting, lobbying, marching, creating information to say, Look, we need to have some kind of literature to say we are supposed to have this test done at this particular point. Right. That’s a simple piece of education, you know, because look, the women have already lobbied to get periods in school. Now where’s our side of that conversation? Why are we not having prostates in school while are we not having that conversation? Why are we not saying to men, Look, this is no different to MOTing of your motorcar? This is no different to ensuring your motor car. This is no different to taxing your motor car every year. You have to do these three things. There should be that test that you do every year. Right? The simple ten minute PSA test. We don’t want men finding out by accident. They’ve gone to the doctor like myself or somebody else picked up it. Read the leaflet decided to do the test, right? We want to create an annual yearly tests for the PSA and the reason…
Clare Delmar
At what age are you? Are you suggesting that because I mean a back to your boys in school? I mean, I completely appreciate the importance of understanding anatomy and health. And you know, if anything else, for boys to understand what their fathers and their grandfathers might be dealing with. At the beginning. At the beginning, we would. I mean, at the moment, it’s 50 that, so you don’t get a letter, you just get a recommend that when you get to 50, you should have a PSA test right now. We have enough evidence to challenge that statement on its own. Well, I you know, I’ve had two people in those 48 people that have died of prostate cancer. One was 42 years of age. One was 36 years of age. Yeah, right. So we can challenge that statement. If you’re African Caribbean descent or you have a history of it in your family, it should be 45. Again, we have evidence to challenge that statement. So at this moment, we’re saying 40 should be the point of where it should be done, but equally because of the seriousness of this, particularly in the African Caribbean community. Let’s look at this between the ages of 25 and 40, let’s have a look at it. Let’s not dismiss it as because what we’re saying is, is that if they’re not aware of at 14, 15 and 16, you push on ten years right to it at 25 years of age, right? If there’s a history of it in your family, you know, we have got evidence that, you know, we’ve got somebody of 36 that’s died of it. We have had other people of information that have had people of 27,28 that have died of it. So what we’re saying is, look, it’s clearly an issue in the African Caribbean community that goes without saying, so let’s not let’s not go down this ritual of, oh, well, if it was one in four white men, it would be a different conversation. It be accomplished for every man. Full stop.
Clare Delmar
Yeah, fair enough. Fair enough. So that’s interesting. So you’re not just focussing on the Afro-Caribbean or the Asian community.
Errol McKellar
All men. All men because, you know, as I said in in this conversation, prostate, don’t care about your colour. It doesn’t ask. It didn’t ask me whether I was black, white or indifferent.
Clare Delmar
Oh, indeed, indeed. But the risk factors are different as you as you noted.
Errol McKellar
We’re not neglecting that. But what we’re saying is we want all men to be treated equally with this problem.
Clare Delmar
OK, so I want to move on to how you’re proposing, you know, specifically, I want to get into the real nitty gritty because we don’t have too much time left and just have you tell us quickly. And maybe I think as I’m hearing myself say this and thinking, probably want to do a follow up because you’ve got so much to say, but you are proposing, as I understand it, to introduce a mobile PSA service.
Errol McKellar
Yeah, yeah. We want to do what’s not been done before. Right. What we’re saying is our research tells us that there’s a lot of men who are still having an excuse not to go to their doctors. They’re definitely not happy to go to the hospital because they are worried about what’s going on at the moment, so they would rather not go to the hospital. So it comes back to this word of the fear and ignorance. You know, last year, I lost 15 men to prostate cancer. Right, 15 men died of prostate cancer. Ten of those men refused to go to their doctors or hospitals. So, you know, for me, those are the two elements that affected those 15 people through fear and ignorance. They chose to do something or chose not to do something or did something when it was too late. We can’t continue to have this kind of situation going on. So our idea is if people aren’t going to do the tests, we will bring the test to them.
Clare Delmar
Yeah. So I guess it’s kind of like, if you know, if the mountain doesn’t come to Mohammed, Mohammed will go to the mountain?
Errol McKellar
You know, that is the cliche. And what we you know, we’ve done all the necessary homework. We’ve done all the due diligence is that are needed to be done right. And we believe that the mobile PSA testing vehicle with the equipment that we want to put on this vehicle that, as we say, will give up to a 98% success rate in the results. And we can not only do the test on you, we can give you the results in 35 minutes, right? We are confident that we can take the pressure off NHS and the doctors by doing up to 20,000 tests or more per year with this equipment and a mobile system that we’re talking about by taking it around. Particularly in the communities, and we’re capable of going into the places where the so-called masses don’t go.
Clare Delmar
OK.
Errol McKellar
We will go into these estates, we will go into the community places and you know, we have the resources and we have the people who can help to make this work.
Clare Delmar
So is this where your football connections come into play? Yeah, no pun intended.
Errol McKellar
Yeah, yeah, no, no. It’s a great pun, and it’s right. You know, we have a majority of the football grounds around the country that want us to bring the mobile testing vehicle to the football grounds on a match day where the audience base there is at least 75% men.
Clare Delmar
Or their nagging wives.
Errol McKellar
There’s nothing simpler than somebody, you know, we have. We have the system right where, you know, we are going to treat the whole thing like a traffic light system. So it’s green for everything. That’s fine. It’s amber for surveillance and monitoring and red for immediate attention, right where we will bring, you know, a consultant to the table, we will do a care of duty. And what is important is that we are also going to create a data with all of this information so that we can help with a better understanding as to why men, right, are at higher risk, right with prostate cancer, because we’ll be able to ask the direct questions, we’ll be able to look at it and say, Look, this is what’s happening to a black man. This is what’s happening to a white man. This was happening to an Asian man. And we feel that. Yeah. And no disrespect to to the the authorities like the NHS, but we feel that, you know, they’ve got a document that is not going to be not going to be reviewed again until 2024. Well, if we’re losing 50,000 men a year, that means we’re going to lose over 100,000 men. Right. And that’s not even including this year’s total before we address the situation again, that can’t be acceptable in any shape or form.
Clare Delmar
Well, I am so inspired by what you’re doing. I mean, you know, not only are you trying to do something that’s immediately implementable and you’ve sourced technology, you’ve sourced expertise. You’ve got the channels, you know, you’ve got a vision about building up a data set that can be used for, you know, future benefit. All I can say is wow. And I look forward to picking up with you maybe, maybe later in the year to see, see, you know where you’re going. There’s so many ways of looking at this, but I think what you’re doing is just an incredible service, and I want to thank you so much for coming and telling us about it today.
Errol McKellar
Listen, if you have anyone out there that wants to come on board and help because what we’re doing and what we’re trying to do, we need help. And and you know, they can get in touch with TheErrolMcKellarFoundation.com to tell us if they one want to sponsor or support or, you know, but this is going to happen. This is we who’s going to make a difference, not me. We make it, and that’s why we set this charity. For this reason, we felt that something needs to be done and it needs to be done now.
Clare Delmar
Well, I commend you and I wish you all the best, and I want to thank you once again for joining us today.
Errol McKellar
Brilliant. Thank you. Thank you to your listeners.
Clare Delmar
OK. A transcript of this interview and links to the Errol McKellar Foundation are available in the programme notes on our website, along with further information on diagnostics and treatment for prostate cancer. And additional interviews and stories about men who are living with prostate cancer. Please visit www.thefocaltherapyclinic.co.uk and follow us on Twitter and Facebook at The Focal Therapy Clinic. Thanks for listening and from me, Clare Delmar, see you next time.