Stuart

“Damian”

Stuart died on September 1st 2021 in his 68th year.

In late 2019 he was a fit man, having recovered from bowel surgery 3 years earlier. He was enjoying retired life with his wife and family, playing golf, socialising, walking the dog and taking regular holidays. By March 2020 he was looking forward to the birth of his first grandchild.

He developed a sore back and after hearing this could be a symptom of prostate cancer he took a PSA test in early 2020. The result showed a slightly raised PSA and he undertook further tests and was eventually diagnosed positive for prostate cancer.

He underwent treatment during the Covid-19 pandemic, fighting for the use of new drugs on behalf of himself and others, with the support of Prostate Cancer UK.

There were positive signs of the success of the treatment until a scan in May 2021 when he was told he had an area of tumour that wasn’t responding to the enzatulamide he was taking. This turned out to be a blastoma tumour which carried a poor prognosis.

In June he withdrew from all treatment other than palliative care.

Stuart was a good friend to most of us on this walk and had been for over 40 years. We will miss him dearly. In memoriam, he was the 17th Brother on the Hike.

We hope our efforts will educate people about prostate cancer and also raise money towards developing a routine screening test to facilitate its early diagnosis.

In the days before Stuart passed away, Ian and he spent time talking about their shared love of music, and concerts they had attended. The outcome was this list, of Stu’s Desert Island Discs.