(metro.co.uk
>A dad diagnosed with breast cancer says he felt isolated and lonely after being rejected by Facebook support groups because he is male.
David McCallion, 55, was diagnosed with the illness shortly before his 30th wedding anniversary and even his own doctor assumed that his wife was the patient when they talked about the diagnosis. Facing a mastectomy and being left to feel as though ‘real men’ don’t get breast cancer, he turned online to look for support.
But, he was told that he could not join because he was a man and it would prevent other members from opening up about their own concerns. He said: ‘I was made to feel like I was muscling in, but the last thing I wanted to do was jump up and down saying, “Look at me I’ve got breast cancer too”.’
Every year 390 men are diagnosed as having the condition in the UK and 80 of them die. David, from Manchester, said: ‘If the other 389 men feel anything like I did, something needs to be done. I will never be the same person I was before my diagnosis. Cancer is lonely, full stop. But being a man in what I call the ‘pink world’ of breast cancer – that’s even lonelier.’
>‘Some ask why I’ve had it, as if to say, “Are you really a man?”
He was diagnosed in 2015 with gynaecomastia, a common condition causing men’s breasts to become larger than normal. Then in April 2019, David noticed his right nipple was inverted and thought it must be linked to the condition.
>Twenty minutes after the biopsy the doctor said that, in his opinion, there was a 99 per cent chance it was going to be cancer’. The first thing I thought was, “How the hell am I going to tell my family?”
>‘My second thought was, “How am I going to tell everybody else I have breast cancer – as a man?” My head was completely gone.’
Now David is keen to make men aware that breast cancer can affect them, too, and is urging them to check themselves for tell-tale symptoms.
