Gold Coast fishing stalwart Doug Burt opens up about aggressive prostate cancer diagnosis
NOTABLE Gold Coast fishing identity Doug Burt was on his way to get a coffee when he received a call that would change his life forever. And if he hadn’t been tested, he would have been dead by Christmas.
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IF DOUG Burt hadn’t been tested for prostate cancer in April he would have been dead by Christmas.
Now the man behind Doug Burt’s Tackle World at Labrador and brother of TV fishing identity Paul has been told by doctors he has less than 15 years to live after surgery for an aggressive form of the disease.
“If I hadn’t been tested, by Christmas it could have been all over,” said the 53-year-old father of three, who has had two operations to remove the cancer after it spread from his prostate to lymph nodes.
“Doctors can be pretty blunt after they first give you the bad news.”
He had his future planned out. Sell the shop in seven years, head north and live out his days fishing the Great Barrier Reef with his future grandchildren.
“My plan was to work until I’m 60, get a boat and fish the Great Barrier Reef with my grandkids but that’s changed now,” Doug said. “Now I’m not too sure what I’m going to do.”
For now, Doug is resting at home after his most recent surgery a fortnight ago.
Like many men, his prostate journey started with a simple blood test.
“Usually I would have a good PSA (prostate-specific antigen) of about 2 to 3.5 but this year it was 4.1,” he said.
Three weeks later another test revealed the score had alarmingly jumped to 5.3.
After further tests, he received bad news on August 28.
“I was on my way to have coffee with my wife … when the doctor called me,” he said.
“The news hit me like a bus. When I arrived at the cafe I tried to hold back my tears but my wife just looked at me and said ‘You’ve got it, haven’t you’. We went home and bawled our eyes out.”
Then came telling his kids — Jack, 15, Liam, 13, and Luar, 11.
“It was the hardest thing I’ve done in my life,” Doug said. “They think you’re going to die.”
Doug is passionate about using his story to educate other men, and all the more so after sharing his diagnosis with online followers of his fishing shop saw his phone light up with more than 600 messages from people affected by prostate cancer.
“I didn’t realise how big this was,” said Doug, who is one of almost 17,000 Australian men diagnosed this year.
“Everyone seems to be touched by this … (but) breast cancer is the one everyone hears about. I was truly shocked.”
Doug’s openness also extends to discussing the “man problems” associated with prostate surgery, which, much like breast cancer ruthlessly attacks a woman’s femininity, goes after a victim’s manhood.
“The operation has a lot of side effects … which a lot of men don’t like to talk about,” he said.
Doug explains that if the cancer spreads to the lymph nodes, nerve endings in the pelvis can be removed, lowering arousal. Surgery also can shorten the length of one’s manhood, leading to laughter about a sex shop visit for equipment to help recovery.
“Going to the sex shop was interesting,” he said.
“You park about four streets away, wear really dark sunglasses and walk about two metres towards the shop every minute so no one sees.
“The doctors said the (sex shop) staff would know how to help and they were right.”
While the past few weeks have been tough, Doug remains optimistic.
“You’ve got to have positivity,” he said. “These guys (doctors, specialists and patients) all talk about making sure you’ve got a lot of positivity … you get a lot more time out of your life that way.”
Time for family, children, friends and, of course, fishing.
“Now I treat every minute like gold.
“Before when I’d go to work each day, I’d give the kids a kiss as though I was never going to see them again.
“Now I do that like never before.”
THE HARD FACTS:
DOUG Burt desperately wants men to know these statistics.
According to Cancer Australia, 16,665 men have been diagnosed with prostate cancer this year. It has killed 3452 people this year, a death rate only behind lung and bowel cancer and ahead of the highly publicised breast cancer.
“You’ve got to go in for regular tests after you’re 40,” said Doug, who has been in the boating and fishing industry for 35 years.
“Some guys want to tough it out and just keep going how they’re going until they die, but if you’ve got a family you have to get tested.
“If you see your pissing length is slowing down — if it isn’t beaming out like it did when you used to be out on the piss at a nightclub — get tested.
“If you don’t have the tests, you’re not going to make it … people need to understand it’s not a slow thing.”