Men CAN get breast cancer... I found out the hard way

Survivor MP wants to raise awareness & improve care

- BY MARTIN BAGOT Health Editor

AN MP who survived breast cancer says the public need to know that "men can get it too".

Clive Jones had a mastectomy after a hard, painful lump in his chest was first dismissed by a GP.

About 400 men are diagnosed with breast cancer each year. While this is just 1% of total UK cases, there are fears that cases are being missed because GPs do not expect it, or have time to ask the right questions.

Clive, the Liberal Democrat MP for Wokingham, Berks, said: "If a man feels a lump, don't let anybody put you off insist on having a test to rule out or rule in cancer."

Clive told us he found the lump on a day out in 2008 with his daughters, who were 13 and 14 at the time.

He explained: "I walked into the head of my 13 year old and I felt it. I had a really sore chest. I felt and there was a lump. So I went to the doctors and this GP had a look at it."

He said he was told it was gynaecomastia, which causes nipples or breasts to look swollen or feel sore.

Clive, 66, went on: "I said 'there is a lump we can both feel it, why don't you send me to the Royal Berkshire Hospital for a test?' He said 'if I send you and everybody else who wants to go for a test, the NHS will fall apart. Come back if it gets bigger."

Test