Black men must face the truth about prostate cancer | Linford Christie

This summer marks 25 years since one of the greatest moments of my career, winning Olympic gold in Barcelona. It often feels like the last 25 years have flown by as quickly as the 9.96 seconds it took to run the race!

A quarter of a century on and I’ve just turned 57. In my mind, I don’t feel any different to how I felt on that day in 1992. I still feel in good shape and to this day I spend more time at the track than I do in my house. However, as I’ve grown older, I’ve become much more mindful of the potential threats to my health than I ever was then.

I’ve recently started working with the men’s health charity Prostate Cancer UK and have learned some startling statistics. As a black man over 50, my risk of prostate cancer is double that of a white man the same age. One in four black men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer in their lifetime – the equivalent of one member of a 4×4 relay squad.

The prostate is an invisible gland; you can’t see it, you can’t feel it. In fact, 17% of men don’t even know they have a prostate.

If I’m being honest, until lately, I was one of the many thousands of men who knew next to nothing about the vital, walnut-size, reproductive gland inside me. More than 11,000 men die from prostate cancer every year in the UK, but over the next 10 years Prostate Cancer UK is ramping up its investment in research and has set a goal to transform the disease into one that the next generation will not fear.

Despite the odds being stacked against black men, just saying the word “prostate” within many black communities remains a massive taboo subject. Still, in 2017, the disease is simply not spoken about and, if it is, it’s in a “hush-hush, don’t tell anyone” type of way. How can it be that something that affects so many black fathers, uncles, sons and friends is continually swept under the carpet and ignored?

My health has always been important to me. When I was in the prime of my career, it was the most important thing. I was conscious of my diet and keeping myself in shape. I had to; other than a pair of running spikes, my physical and mental fitness was all I had – my career depended on it. Unbeatable; indestructible; that’s what I wanted to be, and I believed I was.

As I’ve grown older, my diet is still vital, but I’ve come to realise that no matter how well I eat or how fit I am, I am not indestructible – nobody is. But there are defence measures I can take and arming myself with knowledge is by far the most important.

If prostate cancer is caught early, more often than not, it can be successfully treated. The problem lies in the fact that when it’s in its early stages the disease is just as invisible as the gland itself – it has no symptoms.

This is why awareness of the potential threat, talking to your doctor and spreading the word among men is so important – it saves lives.

I’m currently fronting Prostate Cancer UK’s campaign, Stronger Knowing More, to get black men to face up to their risk of prostate cancer and take action. If you’re a black man, you’re not only more likely to get prostate cancer, you’re more likely to be diagnosed at a younger age.

This challenge is a marathon, not a sprint, and if we’re going to beat it we need to break down the taboos and start talking. It’s only by doing this that we can put a stop to the number of men who die from the disease every year. 

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Black men must face the truth about prostate cancer | Linford Christie

If I had been queen for a day, this would be a month of genuine foods, not detoxers’ nauseous green slime | Christie Watson

I would ban juicing in January. Absolutely. Prison for all juicers. For any person skulking about Holland &amp Barrett looking for spirulina or chia seed or stevia or aloe vera anything that appears like it may well be excreted from a snail. In truth: no detoxing whatsoever. On New Year’s Eve Gwyneth Paltrow would be escorted to a safe location, to resurface only in February.

I would also force the meals organizations to publish warnings on practically every thing: packets and jars and tins: “Invisible sugar in this foods is addictive and will make you body fat and sick”. Or: “You may as effectively give your little one a cigarette as feed them this, because the extended-term well being consequences are as severe”. And extra hormones in meat and milk would be outlawed. We have ample super-size young children hitting puberty at the age of eight previously.

In each and every store there would be a greater assortment of fresh, unadulterated, reasonably priced foods and drink to outweigh their additive-ridden, vitamin-deficient counterparts stuffed with secret sugar. With actual meals filling our supermarkets, and fake meals labelled accordingly, we wouldn’t want extreme food obsessions in January.

My flirtation with juicing started on 1 January 2014. “If it seems to be like Angel the hamster would consume or drink it, then it is healthier. It’s excellent for your insides,” I informed my suspicious children, handing every a glass of green slime. For three tiny servings, the juicer had devoured twenty quid’s worth of natural greens, but I was established to ply the little ones with micro-nutrients. And then I tasted it myself. I felt dangerously nauseous, my young children hated me, and I was miserable.

The outlawing of detoxing would make certain no more: one) individuals feeling dizzy, unable to focus or drive two) working to the toilet with diarrhoea, a consequence of the three cucumbers, the pack of spinach, and the 17 sticks of celery it will take to make each and every shot three) generating daily journeys to foodie Borough Marketplace for huge quantities of veggies four) taking painkillers for the headaches and abdomen cramps this diet program causes and five) even thinking about juicing raw kale, which tastes so rank I can get rid of bodyweight now just remembering it.

“Instead of all this weird overall health juice,” my 10-12 months-previous asked, “can you make it your new year’s resolution up coming year to have enjoyable? Obtaining enjoyable is a lot far better for your insides.” A clever lady, my daughter. The variety of smart courtier a queen would want all around.

If I had been queen for a day, this would be a month of genuine foods, not detoxers’ nauseous green slime | Christie Watson

Martin Christie obituary

Martin Christie taken care of injured men and women from Iraq, Bosnia and Yemen in a Saudi Arabian military facility during the 1990s

Our father, Martin Christie, who has died of cancer aged 67, wrote last yr: “I have had an intriguing and fulfilling lifestyle and I have most likely helped quite a few [men and women] along the way. Cannot request for far more than that.”

Martin was a consultant neurosurgeon and worked in some of the most remote and demanding places in the planet, from Papua New Guinea to the island republic of Kiribati. In the course of the 1990s, he treated the war-wounded from Iraq, Bosnia and Yemen in a Saudi Arabian military facility. He served numerous excursions as a civilian contractor in Afghanistan from 2007 to 2009 and taught in South Sudan in the chaotic aftermath of its independence.

He did not like to talk considerably about his perform in these places, often preferring to listen rather than bask in any limelight. Even so, vivid fragments stay: a photo of a Polynesian lady with a fishing spear by means of her chest sitting calmly in his waiting area a diary entry about insects landing on a patient’s exposed brain throughout surgical procedure in a tent in Helmand province.

Martin was born and brought up in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), the eldest son of Richard Christie, a attorney and pilot, and the journalist Phillippa Berlyn. He attended boarding school from the age of seven. He located his vocation as a medical professional following a possibility conversation with a family buddy and graduated from University University Rhodesia (now the University of Zimbabwe) in 1971.

Having been known as up for military services, he joined the Rhodesian Army Health-related Corps, but broke his back throughout a coaching parachute jump with the SAS. He lay patiently amid the rocks till discovered by his comrades, then instructed them on how he must be moved. The identical yr, he left Rhodesia for great to travel the globe,

Those who knew him effectively miss his calm and reassuring presence, allied with wonderful kindness and power.

Martin is survived by his wife, Mary Chiarella, 4 youngsters from his first marriage, Nikki, Scott and us, and by 3 grandchildren, Ngaire, Aurora and Skye.

Martin Christie obituary