Actor Colin McFarlane has revealed he has been diagnosed with prostate cancer. He has acted in Doctor Who, Outlander, and The Dark Knight.
The 61-year-old claimed that his cancer was in its very early stages and that he was not yet in need of any treatment.
The actor lamented that prostate cancer was taking too many black men's lives. They must be made aware that a quick blood test could save their lives. ".
As The Cube's voice on the ITV game show, McFarlane was well known.
Additionally, he has voiced characters in Peppa Pig, Bob The Builder, Thomas and Friends, Fireman Sam, Holby City, Jonathan Creek, Coronation Street, Torchwood, and Industry. He has also appeared in several other television shows.
Nine months after his brother's own prostate cancer diagnosis, according to McFarlane, he learned of his condition in December.
The actor said a prostate-specific antigen (PSA) test, which can be administered to men without symptoms after consulting with a doctor, is how they both learned they had the disease.
He claimed that he has undergone routine testing ever since a fellow actor who was receiving treatment for prostate cancer 17 years ago informed him of the disease's high prevalence among black men.
"I had been regularly having PSA blood tests with my GP on an annual and then a six-monthly basis because I was already aware of the risk to me," McFarlane said.
Thanks to my advice to my brother to get a PSA blood test just over a year prior, he was diagnosed with the disease even though he had no symptoms. ".
Because he was "able to catch this very early," he continued, he is "one of the lucky ones.".
So even though I have prostate cancer, I don't need any treatment, McFarlane continued.
Every three months, my blood is tested for PSA, and I have an MRI (or magnetic resonance imaging scan) once a year. ".
As the cancer is very slow-moving, McFarlane continued, "I am in the best possible position to determine what treatment I would need in the future, if that were ever deemed necessary, and at this time, that scenario is far off.
Men who do nothing and are ignorant of prostate health are most at risk, according to research. ".
This, according to McFarlane, is the reason he supports Prostate Cancer UK's most recent campaign to persuade men over 50 and black men like him over 45 to get a PSA test.
The charity claims that the risk of contracting the illness is double for black men. One in four people will develop it during their lifetime, compared to one in eight men overall, according to the statistic.
In the Christopher Nolan-directed films Batman Begins and The Dark Knight, McFarlane co-starred with Christian Bale and Sir Michael Caine as Gotham City police commissioner Gillian B Loeb.
He has made several appearances in Doctor Who, including the 2015 holiday special Voyage of the Damned, where he voiced the Heavenly Host, and two episodes in which he played Moran.
