‘I found out by sheer luck’: Brisbane councillor, 36, diagnosed with cancer

Brisbane councillor Ryan Murphy has been diagnosed with prostate cancer, saying he found out by “sheer luck” after a doctor added an extra test to standard blood work.

The 36-year-old said the chances of getting that type of cancer at his age were about one in 100,000.

“It’s stage II and treatable, but caught just in time,” the councillor for Chandler ward wrote on Facebook on Tuesday morning.

Brisbane councillor Ryan Murphy said he planned to take time away from his roles in August to undergo treatment.Credit: Instagram

Murphy said the cancer was only discovered because his GP, Dr Phillip Wuth, added a Prostate Specific Antigen (PSA) test to standard blood work during a cholesterol test.

“A normal PSA reading for a man my age is under two, mine was 11,” he said.

“I have no family history, and no symptoms.

“Phil saved my life.

“My urologist is certain if I had not found this cancer now I would find out the hard way before turning 40.”

According to the Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia, one in five Australian men are at risk of being diagnosed in their lifetime.

Murphy said he was sharing his story in the hopes of helping others.

He has joined the Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia to advocate for a national screening program.

Medicare would not have recommended a PSA test for him for another 14 years, he said, and urged men older than 40 to ask their GP to add a PSA test to their next blood test.

“I found out by sheer luck,” he said.

Murphy planned to take time away from his role as councillor and as transport chair in August to undergo treatment.

He said Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner and his wife, and the wider council team, had been very supportive.

“But more than anyone, I am so grateful to have the love and support of my amazing wife Emma, and my dynamo daughter Elodie – who has no idea what’s going on – we intend to keep it that way,” he said.

The Brisbane councillor’s news comes a day after former US president Joe Biden revealed he was diagnosed with an aggressive form of prostate cancer.

Prostate cancer is the second most common cause of death from cancer in Australian men, after lung cancer, accounting for about 13 per cent of cancer-related deaths in men.

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