WILLIAM STEELE

Campaigning For Breast Cancer Equality

Gill Sherry

Imagine… you’re 46 years old and you find a lump in your breast. Now imagine you’re a 46-year-old man and you find a lump in your breast. That’s exactly what happened to William Steele back in 2001.
“A friend of a friend of mine had died from breast cancer,” William says, “so I was well aware that men could get it.”

He recalls being very worried, but by the time he was actually diagnosed with the disease he mainly just felt relieved. This was because of the delay he’d experienced in getting an appointment to see someone.
“In Ayrshire at that time they had, and still have, a one-stop clinic for women who have found lumps, so they know very quickly if the lump is cancerous. I had to wait about six weeks before I got to see a surgical team.”

Thankfully, men are also now able to use the clinic. However, back in 2001, this was just one of the things that prompted William to campaign for men to be treated the same as women when it came to breast cancer. Another reason was the lack of reconstructive surgery. Having had a mastectomy in the July, followed by a second the following year, he wanted to speak to somebody about plastic surgery.

“Women got the choice to have reconstructive surgery during the first surgery or leave it until later. Men didn’t have that choice. They just weren’t included in it at all.”

To make matters worse, once he left hospital after his first mastectomy, he was given a number of leaflets which were all written for women.

“To be told that after three weeks I should be able to do up my bra at the back… they were really of no use to me.”

He manages to laugh as he recalls his frustrations but I doubt it was funny at the time. In fact, it prompted him to contact Breast Cancer Care asking them to write a separate leaflet specifically for men. It may have taken in excess of two years for this to happen but, thanks to William, such a leaflet does now exist. He was even invited to the Royal College of Surgeons in London for the launch of the new material.

“All the charities now have separate information for men,” he confirms. Although, there is still something else that frustrates him.

“I don’t like being described as having male breast cancer. I didn’t have male breast cancer, I had breast cancer. Men get breast cancer and women get breast cancer, there’s no difference in the disease. It’s this equality thing… it’s more than frustrating.”

There’s also the fact that prior to chemotherapy, pre-menopausal women have the option to preserve their fertility by freezing embryos (IVF), eggs or ovarian tissue. Fertility was not considered when William received his chemo treatment.

“I do hope that young men’s fertility is considered before chemotherapy, just like women.”
One positive thing that he does recall is the support offered by The Kiama Trust and also Ayrshire Cancer Support.

“They had a support group for men with cancer which I attended. I was the only man ever there who had breast cancer. Many thousands of women unfortunately get breast cancer each year but only hundreds of men, perhaps 500, get breast cancer.”

He goes on to thank NHS Scotland, insisting that without them he simply would not be here. Also his wife, Karen, who cared for him throughout.

William, who lives in Drongan, has since discovered that he developed the disease due to a BRCA gene deficiency.

“The genetics labs have become much more sympathetic and sophisticated with testing, that’s how they found out the reason for my breast cancer.”

Developments such as this are extremely encouraging and just one of the reasons why cancer survival rates in the UK have doubled since the 1970s. However, recognising the symptoms early and acting upon those symptoms, is vital.

“It doesn’t matter whether you’re a man or a woman, if you find a lump in your chest you need to go to the doctor, that’s absolutely necessary. Men seem to be embarrassed about it but they shouldn’t be because both men and women have breasts and that’s the truth of the matter.”

Although William continues to take anti-breast cancer drugs and regular B12 injections, he is, thankfully, now free from cancer. He does, however, remain committed to ensuring that men and women are treated equally when it comes to breast cancer. It is not, after all, a gender specific disease.