TESTIMONY. Movember is the month dedicated to prostate cancer awareness. One in eight men will be diagnosed with it during their lifetime. In September 2019, the final blow was given for Beauceron-Neil-Mathieu, his stage 4 cancer was incurable. For five years, the metastases have been dormant and he makes the most of each of his days, because no one knows what tomorrow will bring.
“The bad news had the effect of a stick in the forehead. I no longer listened to the doctor… I was surprised, because I didn’t feel any physical warning signs. Prostate cancer is sneaky,” recalls the septuagenarian.
His first prostate-related symptom, benign enlargement, dates back to 2004, the year coinciding with the death of his wife following a motorcycle accident. Benign hypertrophy is a natural, non-cancerous phenomenon that does not increase the risk of developing prostate cancer. But from the age of 50, it affects almost all men as they age. About 25% of them need to be treated.
His cancer being incurable, Mr. Mathieu was not operated on. The urologist and oncologist prescribed high-dose medication for the rest of his life, interspersed with an injection every six weeks. If the cancer were to reawaken, it would inevitably have to go through chemo and radiotherapy.
Men most at risk of developing prostate cancer are men aged 50 and over, those with a family history of prostate cancer or other forms of cancer, and men with a genetic mutation. . Every day, 19 Quebecers are diagnosed with prostate cancer, or approximately 6,800 new cases per year. It is a disease that generally progresses slowly and is curable when detected at an early stage.
“I don’t like to hear that it’s not a serious cancer, easily curable, because that’s not true. No two prostate cancers are the same. I responded very well to the medications, they put my metastases to sleep, but I have a friend who was diagnosed at 58 and his body reacted badly to the treatments. The metastases were in his bones and spread everywhere. Unfortunately, he died last year,” says Mr. Mathieu.
“Doctors don’t like to answer the question how long before cancer wakes up ? They don’t know, because each case is unique. My doctor told me three years and yet I have reached five years,” he explains.
Neil Mathieu is a retired hotelier. He was the owner of the Manoir Chaudière and the Auberge Bénédict Arnold. He always keeps busy, despite the side effects of his medication: he is a volunteer administrator within the Groupe Espérance et Cancer organization. Once a month, he leads a men’s support group and gives a lot of his time to FADOQ as vice-president.
“I don’t have time to think about cancer,” says Neil Mathieu with a wink. “Every day you have left is more important than the ones you have lived. For my part, I am enjoying life. »
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