Kenny: Men can help fight prostate cancer by getting checked

EDINBURGH, SCOTLAND - OCTOBER 28: Kenny Logan and Chris Paterson during a Scotland training session at BT Murrayfield, on October 28, 2022, in Edinburgh, Scotland. (Photo by Ross Parker / SNS Group)

As a player, Kenny Logan was one of Scotland’s finest. 70 Test caps, 13 tries and a haul from the tee that puts him seventh in the country’s all-time list of points scorers with 220, the gregarious former winger is the sort of character cherished by the rugby community.

When he announced in September that he had undergone treatment for prostate cancer, Logan did so with an added intention of highlighting to men that their health should be seen as a priority and getting checked for such issues could literally save their life.

It was by chance that Kenny found out about his condition, his interest in getting a check-up sparked by a conversation at home, as he explained: “I felt totally fine. Gabby [Logan, Kenny’s wife] had this podcast that she started during lockdown called the Midpoint, and when I listened to her talking about menopause and hormone replacement, I said to her at dinner one night: “I listened to your podcast and what happens to men?

“What cliff do men fall off? So she suggested I did a test, which I did and was told that everything looked fine, but that my PSE [prostate-specific antigen] level was a bit high. I asked what that meant and very quickly went to see someone about it.

“Positive thinking and all that, I thought ‘there’s no way it’s cancer’, that it wouldn’t be me. Every time I got more tests though, my PSE was going up and then in February this year, I was told I had it and that they needed to act.

“The best thing the specialist said to me was that prostate cancer will find you but you can find it first. He said if you go looking for it when there’s no symptoms, and keep your eye on it, you’ll avoid it. That’s why people say if you get prostate cancer at the right time it’s curable.”

Kenny wants more men to feel comfortable with the notion of having health check-ups, in order to give experts the best chance of detecting early any problems that can arise.

“As I’ve got older, I’ve become more open,” he adds.

“People have a panic about these sort of things but when you say ‘I’m 50 years old and I want to live’, you forget about the stupid stuff about not wanting to get tested. It’s a simple blood test to see if you need looking at.

“If I had left it, it might have been too late. You have to go and get your body tested and you can’t just relate things down to injuries or having played sport when you were younger. You’ve got to get yourself checked – and keep getting checked as you go.”

Find out more about prostate cancer and how to get checked.