MPs were 'embarrassed' to avoid prostate cancer tests (2025)

MPs campaigning for a national prostate cancer testing rollout admitted they were 'embarrassed' to have put off getting checked themselves - despite being in the most at-risk group.

Former Home Secretary James Cleverly and Labour's Calvin Bailey, who leads the all-Parliamentary group on prostate cancer, said it was only when loved ones were diagnosed with the disease that they stepped forward - despite being more likely to get it due to age and ethnicity.

Around one in eight men in the UK is diagnosed with prostate cancer in their lifetime, a figure which rises to one in four for black men.

Familial history also increases the risk of diagnosis, with those aged 45 and older more susceptible.

Yet the disease is often symptomless, meaning men are typically unaware they have prostate cancer until they get tested.

It is why MPs from across Parliament have joined the likes of broadcaster Sir Stephen Fry, chef Ken Hom, and Health Secretary Wes Streeting in backing the Daily Mail's call for the National Screening Committee to recommend the roll-out of a targeted screening programme on the NHS.

And they invited The Prostate Project's 'Man Van' mobile testing unit to Parliament in order to encourage as many men as possible to undergo a simple PSA blood test, which helps diagnose prostate cancer.

Mr Bailey said a recent prostate cancer death prompted him to get tested.

Inviting the Mail as he underwent a PSA test, the Zambia-born former RAF wing commander said: 'I think sadly, with the stats being so high, we will all have personal connections with prostate cancer.

'Only this weekend, a very good friend and colleague of mine in the Royal Air Force passed away having been diagnosed with stage four cancer only about two or three weeks ago.

'And so these things are quite shocking.'

Mr Bailey has spread awareness of prostate cancer including through a series of Facebook videos.

It prompted a relative to get a PSA which showed he was in the early stages of the disease, and is now in remission due to it being caught early enough.

Despite this, Mr Bailey did not get tested himself until recently.

'I absolutely should have got a test done before now,' he admitted to the Mail, moments before having his blood taken by Dr Emily MacDonald during a drop-in session in Westminster.

His test result soon came back confirming the all-clear.

But the Leyton MP said he would now encourage his friends to get tested.

'I'm slightly embarrassed that I haven't (got tested before), and I worry now that by not having that discussion, I may have denied my own friends and perhaps myself time to address a diagnosis if it comes.'

Tory former minister Mr Cleverly said he also needlessly put off getting his first prostate cancer test until recently, despite being in the at-risk group as a black man aged over 45.

He told the Mail: 'I was co-sponsor of an event here in Parliament a few months ago encouraging people to get tested. And of course one of the people attending said: Oh, and I take it, you've been tested because you're in the ethnic group and age group?

'And rather embarrassingly I said that I hadn't yet been tested, and after a number of scowling faces stared at me, I went off and I booked a test.'

The test was negative. But the 55-year-old former Foreign Secretary said concerns about a positive diagnosis should not have dissuaded him from getting checked.

'For me, the really big message is that this is an incredibly successfully treated cancer if it is caught early, if you're scared of getting bad news, that's the wrong thing.

'Get tested, because if it does come up positive, and you do get treated, your survival rates are excellent.

'I know a number of people, both political colleagues, members of my family, who have been diagnosed with prostate cancer, are being treated, or have been treated for prostate cancer, and are living very, very full lives.

'And for me, that was a real reminder that this is not some quiet little thing to be hidden away and not discussed.

'This is the kind of thing that we should know more about, that we should be willing to talk about and encourage people to be tested.'

Around 50 men working in Parliament underwent a voluntary PSA test in the Man Van on a single day last month.

Both Mr Bailey and Mr Cleverly are calling on the National Screening Committee to take action and recommend at-risk men are offered a test.

Mr Cleverly said: 'This is apolitical, this is not about trying to get some form of short-term political advantage or embarrassing the Government or whatever, this is about trying to do the right thing.

'I'm very, very proud that we've got Conservatives, Lib Dem, Labour and support actually right across the political spectrum, because this is really, really important. Many, many, many lives can be saved.'

The National Screening Committee is expected to decide on its latest recommendations by the end of the year.

Professor Stephen Langley, professor of urology at the Prostate Brachytherapy Centre in Surrey, said it was important for MPs across the political divide to spread the message about the disease.

He said: 'Now is its moment. We need to provide a targeted screening program for the most common cancer killer of men, which is prostate cancer.

'I think (cross-party political support) just highlights the importance of this. Prostate cancer isn't political.

'This is for all men in the country, and all men need to know about prostate cancer, and we need a targeted screening program across the whole of the UK.'