The Hants Journal

April 14, 2011 I Community 15

c ncer awareness United in the FIGHT

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Paul Redden,
pictured in
his public
works attire,
is happy to be
back at work
after a bout
with prostate
cancer that
forced him to
put his life in
perspective.
Ashley
Thompson
photo

Getting back to the good life

Prostate cancer survivor shares his story in hopes of helping others
By Ashley Thompson and beside his wife, Marilyn, feeling para- news when he drove to Kentville for the disease in his 60s, before succumbing to a
THE HANTS JOURNAL lyzed by the diagnosis. appointment that was booked only a few heart attack later in life.
NovaNewsNow.com
Redden, who has been getting checked days after his biopsy. A recent blood test “I was terrified,” Redden admitted. “For
After a life-changing visit to his family for prostate cancer annually since he found that his PSA levels were much high- the first two days and two nights I never
doctor, Paul Redden doesn’t stress about turned 39, was expecting to hear bad er than usual, and his father battled the slept.” Continued on page 16
the small things anymore.
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with prostate cancer three years ago. (902) 798-8048
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16 Community I The Hants Journal
April 14, 2011

Good life… Cont. from page 15

Redden said he started to do some the two days they cried from morning to Now, the couple is sharing their story the disease, and 4,300 cases proved to be
research before making a decision on night, how hard it was for Paul to tell his to help others. fatal. Symptoms can include difficulty uri-
how to treat the disease, which, he was children and his mother that he had can- “When Paul was first diagnosed, his nating, the need to urinate frequently
told, is typically a slow-growing form of cer, and how guilty he felt for causing doctor gave him the name of somebody throughout the night, and painful ejacula-
cancer. them to worry. else who had been through it and Paul tion.
“In my case it was early (detection). It “You felt like you got punched in the called and talked to him and it was help- It is recommended that men over
was contained within the prostate,” said stomach. It’s really, really scary. You’re ful. Paul thought if he could help anybody the age of 50, or males with a history of
Redden, adding that he had an 85 per cent whole life just the same way that prostate cancer in their family, speak
chance of survival, but 15 per cent can be changes. Everything he’d be more than with their doctors about regular PSA
an unnerving statistic when the odds are is different,” Marilyn willing to do that.” tests and digital rectum examinations

“
life and death. said.
Rather than opting for chemotherapy “It’s really a reali-
or seed radiation, Redden returned to
Kentville for a radical prostatectomy —
ty check. You have
to come to terms
in the stomach. It’s really, really
the complete removal of the prostate — with your mortality.”
five weeks after the doctor’s appointment More than any-
that he can hardly remember, but will thing, she wanted
never forget. her husband — a
Marilyn says watching her husband of recreational golfer,
26 years disappear into an operating room cyclist and jogger —
was close to unbearable. to have a speedy
“In any surgery there is always a risk. recovery and return
That day at the hospital, seeing him go home.
in, waiting for him to come back out — She got her wish.
that was a long day. Seeing him, know- And, like her hubby, she doesn’t spend
ing he was scared, I kept thinking ‘if I’m much time sweating the small stuff.
this worried, how worried must he “It gives you a new outlook,” she said.
be?’” “He ran a 10K marathon, skated a 10K on
She fretted for hours, reflecting on how the oval [in Halifax] — both these things
the diagnosis had consumed their lives, were after his surgery,” she beamed.
Redden said sup- to increase the odds of catching the
You felt like you got punched port from family, disease in the early, more treatable,
friends and medical stages.
professionals held In remission, Redden makes a con-
scary. You’re whole life just him high above scious effort to eat well, exercise often and
rock bottom, even think positive. He’ll complete his second
changes. Everything is at his worst. survivor’s lap at the Hants West Relay for
different.
”
“To find some Life June 3 at the Windsor exhibition
friends to talk to is grounds.
— Marilyn Redden
one of the biggest “I think to myself, ‘I’ve beat this thing,
things that I would I’ve just got to keep up with my check-
stress. Don’t bottle ups… twice a year,’” he said.
it up,” he said. “It’s not something that you look for-
“It makes it a lot easier when you can ward to — the blood work and the check-
talk to someone. I never thought that ups — but it is something that could end
would be the case, but it was.” up saving your life.”
The Canadian Cancer Society’s website
says prostrate cancer is the most common Visit NovaNewsNow.com regularly to
form of cancer found in Canadian men. In keep on top of breaking news with the click of
2010, 24,600 people were diagnosed with a mouse

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