For more than a decade, Paul Bottomley and his wife Jane have been fundraising for Macmillan Cancer Support, a journey that began in 2012 when she was diagnosed with ovarian cancer.

Between them the Sowerby Bridge couple have raised £86,000 for the cause and over the years have become friends with a number of the Macmillan nurses their cash has supported.

They’ve been among people who have sent messages to 59-year-old Paul, who is now facing his own cancer diagnosis, three years after Jane was given the all-clear in 2023, following 11 years of treatment.

Paul, who has prostate cancer, says he was having to get up several times a night to pass urine and went to see his doctor after seeing a friend post on social media about his experience of being diagnosed.

placeholder image — Jane and Paul Bottomley

“As soon as I told my doctor why I wanted to have it done, because I'm up five times in the night for a pee, they gave me a blood test,” he explains.

“The morning after, they rang me and asked me to come straight down again because my results were abnormal.

“They checked my prostate and said ‘we have a plan, it's going to be fast, it's going to be upsetting, but we have a plan, just follow it’ and within three weeks, it's been diagnosed.”

Paul and Jane work together for WildAx Motor Homes in Elland. “They've been absolutely brilliant, it's one big family,” he says. “The managers said ‘if there's anything you need, in work, out of work, we're here’, which made it a lot better for me.”

Paul says he wants to encourage other men to be tested for prostate cancer, and that they shouldn't feel scared or embarrassed about doing so.

“You don't even have to be of a certain age, if you've any problems with broken sleep by getting up in the night for the toilet, or sometimes you're struggling to pee and there's nothing coming out, get yourself checked,” he says.

“The embarrassment is worth your life. I'd have been walking round for the next two years without even knowing and it would have been too late.

“There's so many men walking round with prostate cancer and they don't know until it's too late.

“I'm upset, I've got so much going through my mind, especially because of all the fundraising I've done with Jane, and now Jane's looking after me. I've spent 13 years looking after Jane, she's doing absolutely brilliant now.

"I'm friends with all the Macmillan nurses we've raised money for, and I've had so many amazing messages from them.

"I've done all this work, but it doesn't matter who you are, what race you are, it can happen to anyone. It doesn't discriminate. I want people to learn and get educated because it can happen to absolutely anyone.”

“I've gone from a normal life to it completely changing within three weeks, and you get pulled from pillar to post for test after test after test, but the doctors and nurses have been brilliant,” he adds.