Former Green Cross Code superhero and the man who filled Darth Vader’s iconic costume Dave Prowse has been creating awareness of prostate cancer among men. The genial Prowse, now in his early 70s, like many men had never been tested and only asked his doctor to check him out after a suggestion at a charity golf match where he presented the cheque to the chosen charity – which turned out to be the Prostate Cancer Charity. When his tests came back positive Dave was put onto a treatment regime and thankfully as it was caught early his medication and treatment appears to have been successful. He’s now encouraging men to say sod the embarassment factor and be aware of the condition – if it is caught early enough then usually it is treatable, but sadly too many are either too embarassed by the nature of the disease or simply not aware there is anything wrong (he himself had no indication of any problem prior to his checkup) and leave it too long to be saved and a lot of men who could have been cured will die of the cancer each year.
For some reason it makes me smile to think that Dave, who did his bit to protect a generation of kids in the 70s with his Green Cross Code Man role is now doing his bit to protect men of a certain age in his autumn years. Good on you, Dave, similar campaigns of awareness for things like breast cancer have helped cut deaths over the years, so kudos to you for trying to do the same for prostrate cancer. (via the BBC)
Tue, Jun 23, 2009
Film, TV and radio