Breast cancer was the ‘furthest thing’ from retired police officer Harry Gray’s mind when his nylon running shirt started to rub on his chest.
The 74-year-old first suspected something wasn’t right while he was on holiday with his wife Val in Florida in March 2019, but he brushed off his sore chest as a damaged nerve.
However, the pain in his left breast became ‘excruciating’ months later for the keen jogger who lives in Alness, near Inverness in Scotland.
Despite not being able to see anything wrong, he called his GP where he was fast-tracked to a specialist cancer unit.
Weeks later, he was shocked to learn he’d developed stage two breast cancer — a condition that almost always affects women.
74-year-old Harry Gray, pictured with his dog Willow, first suspected something wasn’t right while he was on holiday with his wife Val in Florida in March 2019, but he brushed off his sore chest as a damaged nerve
The pain in his left breast became ‘excruciating’ months later for the keen jogger who lives in Alness, near Inverness in Scotland
Only one per cent of all cases are in men, studies show.
Speaking of the first time he noticed a pain in his chest, Mr Gray said: ‘We were being playful in the swimming pool and my wife pinched me on my left nipple.
‘It hurt and after we got home there was some discomfort for a couple of months. But I thought maybe I’d just damaged a nerve so didn’t do anything about it.’
But as months passed the active pensioner, who ran about three times a week, noticed his shirt started to rub on his chest.
He dismissed the common problem until the pain reached ‘ten out of ten’ while he was out on a jog in the first week of September 2019, he told MailOnline.
‘I jog a lot and was wearing one of these nylon jogging shirts. On one particular day it was rubbing against my nipple and I was suddenly in excruciating pain.
‘I couldn’t see anything untoward but thought I’d better get it checked.’
Despite not being able to see anything wrong, he decided to call his GP where he was fast-tracked to a specialist cancer unit — weeks later he was told he had stage two breast cancer
He had a mastectomy on October 23 and doctors removed 19 lymph nodes. He then underwent four rounds of chemotherapy and radiotherapy starting in November
His GP fast-tracked him for an appointment at Halton Hospital in Runcorn, where he and his wife lived at the time, and after an ultrasound and biopsy, he was told he had stage two breast cancer.
He had a mastectomy on October 23 and doctors removed 19 lymph nodes. The following month he began the first of four rounds of chemotherapy and radiotherapy.
Stage two breast cancer is an early stage of the disease where the cancer is either in the breast, in the nearby lymph nodes, or both.
Mr Gray’s biopsy showed cancer was in a lump under his left breast and in one lymph node.
‘I was shocked when I found out, but if I’m honest I immediately started thinking what needs to be done to get me better,’ Mr Gray said.
He recalls the side-effects of chemotherapy being ‘severe’, he lost all his hair and became quite ‘lethargic’.
At one point during his chemotherapy treatment he spiked a dangerously high fever, which landed him in hospital, where he was treated for suspected sepsis.
He said: ‘After a week of tests and antibiotics and everything, I was okay, so they sent me home.’
Breast cancer is the UK’s most common cancer with almost 56,000 cases diagnosed per year
Mr Gray is now raising awareness for the condition as part of Asda’s Tickled Pink campaign, which raises money for Breast Cancer Now and CoppaFeel!
Although breast cancer in men is rare, there are around 400 men diagnosed each year in the UK, according to Breast Cancer Now.
The cancer grows in the small amount of breast tissue men have behind their nipples.
It usually happens in men over 60, but it can occasionally affect younger men.
Mr Gray said: ‘I was always very physically active. I would go to the gym and look after myself. I always thought I was strong, but now I realise that if I’d been a little bit more aware when I first felt that discomfort maybe I might have got away with just having a lump taken out and not having this full mastectomy.’
‘It still affects me, because it’s all still numb and the doctor told me I probably won’t get the feeling back because it’s such a drastic bit of surgery.
‘It’s made me more aware now so when I feel something isn’t right I don’t wait that extra month or two to see if it self-resolves; I call the doctor.’
Although breast cancer in men is rare, there are still about 370 men diagnosed each year in the UK, according to Breast Cancer Now
Mr Gray believes men should make checking themselves a regular part of their routine and that they must act if they notice anything out of the ordinary
He admitted that he never considered that breast cancer could affect him.
‘I never thought about it. I was lucky it was only stage two but if I’d left it longer it could have been much more difficult to treat and I might not be sitting here now.’
Although breast cancer and the symptoms to look out for is now widely discussed, Mr Gray feels that the message is rarely directed at men.
‘When we watch morning TV shows that have doctors on, they talk about breast cancer, but they always talk about women’s breast cancer,’ he said.
‘I am sure the majority of men who get the disease did not have a clue that they’d be suseptable.’
When Mr Gray was given his treatment options he was told by his surgeon what the survival rates of breast cancer with and without chemotherapy.
But it was met with the caveat that the statistics were for women because there’s not enough data from men.
He believes men should make checking themselves a regular part of their routine and that they must act if they notice anything out of the ordinary.
‘As far as checking your breasts I’d say to a man you should do it on a regular basis, in a similar way that you check your testicles for testicular cancer.
‘I still check my other breast and it only takes a few minutes to check there’s nothing unusual there.’
