Campaign highlights conflicting emotions around prostate cancer

A new Marie Keating Foundation awareness campaign is using Blue September, held every September, to highlight the “seen” and “unseen” emotions that can accompany a prostate cancer diagnosis. The initiative, titled “Diagnosis Duality - the Seen, Unseen and Everything in Between,” examines five coexisting emotional pairings: Alive/Angry, Free/Fear, Grateful/Grieving, Delighted/Detached and Strong/Shaken. In Ireland, about 4,500 men are diagnosed with prostate cancer each year (excluding non-melanoma skin cancer, it’s the most common cancer in men). Survival has risen over three decades, with five-year net survival increasing from 76% for 1994-1998 to 97% for 2019-2022, but emotional effects can persist and aren’t always visible. The foundation urges open conversations and discussions with GPs about PSA testing from age 50, or 45 with family history.