Breast cancer was the ‘furthest thing’ from retired police officer Harry Gray’s mind when his nylon running shirt started rubbing his chest.
The 74-year-old first suspected something was wrong while on holiday in Florida with his wife Val in March 2019, but brushed off his sore chest like a damaged nerve.
However, the pain in his left chest became ‘unbearable’ months later for the keen jogger who lives in Alness, near Inverness in Scotland.
Despite being unable to see anything wrong, he called his GP, where he was quickly referred to a specialist cancer unit.
Weeks later, he was shocked to learn he had developed stage two breast cancer, a condition that almost always affects women.
Harry Gray, 74, pictured with his dog Willow, first suspected something was wrong while on holiday with his wife Val in Florida in March 2019, but brushed off his sore chest like a damaged nerve
The pain in his left chest became ‘unbearable’ months later for the keen jogger who lives in Alness, near Inverness in Scotland.
Research shows that only one percent of all cases occur in men.
Speaking about the first time he noticed pain in his breast, Mr Gray said: ‘We were playing in the pool and my wife pinched my left nipple.
‘It hurt and after we got home there was some discomfort for a few months. But I thought maybe I had just damaged a nerve, so I didn’t do anything about it.”
But as the months passed, the active retiree, who ran about three times a week, noticed his shirt began to chafe across his chest.
He dismissed the common problem until the pain reached ‘ten out of ten’ while he was jogging in the first week of September 2019, he told MailOnline.
‘I jog a lot and wore one of these nylon jogging shirts. One particular day it rubbed against my nipple and I suddenly felt excruciating pain.
“I couldn’t see anything unusual, but I thought I better get it checked out.”
Despite being unable to see anything wrong, he decided to call his GP, where he was quickly referred to a specialist cancer unit – weeks later he was told he had stage two breast cancer.
He underwent a mastectomy on October 23 and doctors removed 19 lymph nodes. He then underwent four rounds of chemotherapy and radiotherapy from November
His GP quickly arranged him for an appointment at Halton Hospital in Runcorn, where he and his wife lived at the time, and after an ultrasound and biopsy he was told he had stage two breast cancer.
He underwent a mastectomy on October 23 and doctors removed 19 lymph nodes. The following month he began the first of four rounds of chemotherapy and radiotherapy.
Stage two breast cancer is an early stage of the disease in which the cancer is located in the breast, nearby lymph nodes, or both.
Mr Gray’s biopsy showed the cancer was in a lump under his left breast and in one lymph node.
“I was shocked when I found out, but if I’m honest I immediately started thinking about what needs to be done to make me better,” Mr Gray said.
He remembers that the side effects of chemotherapy were ‘severe’, he lost all his hair and became quite ‘lethargic’.
At one point during his chemotherapy treatment, he developed a dangerously high fever, which landed him in the hospital, where he was treated for suspected sepsis.
He said, “After a week of tests and antibiotics and everything, I was fine, so they sent me home.”
Breast cancer is the most common form of cancer in Britain, with almost 56,000 cases diagnosed each year
Mr Gray is now raising awareness of the condition as part of Asda’s Tickled Pink campaignwhich raises money for Breast Cancer Now and CoppaFeel!
Although breast cancer is rare in men, around 400 men in Britain are diagnosed with it every year, according to Breast Cancer Now.
The cancer grows in the small amount of breast tissue that men have behind their nipples.
It usually occurs in men over 60, but it can occasionally affect younger men.
Mr Gray said: ‘I was always very physically active. I would go to the gym and take care of myself. I always thought I was strong, but now I realize that if I had been a little more aware when I first felt that discomfort, I might have been able to get away with just having a lump removed and not a full mastectomy had undergone.’
‘It still bothers me because it’s all still numb and the doctor told me I probably won’t get the feeling back because it’s such a drastic operation.
‘It’s made me more aware now, so if I feel like something isn’t right, I don’t wait that extra month or two to see if it fixes itself; I’ll call the doctor.’
Although breast cancer is rare in men, around 370 men are still diagnosed in the UK every year, according to Breast Cancer Now.
Mr Gray believes men should make self-checking a regular part of their routine and take action if they notice anything unusual.
He admitted he never considered breast cancer might affect him.
‘I never thought about it. I was lucky it was only stage two, but if I had left it longer it could have been much harder to treat and I might not be here now.”
Although breast cancer and the symptoms to look out for are now widely discussed, Mr Gray believes the message is rarely addressed to men.
“When we watch TV shows in the morning where doctors are present, they talk about breast cancer, but they always talk about breast cancer in women,” he said.
‘I’m sure the majority of men who get the disease had no idea they would be susceptible.’
When Mr. Gray was presented with his treatment options, he was told by his surgeon what the survival rates for breast cancer are with and without chemotherapy.
But it was met with the caveat that the statistics were for women because there isn’t enough data on men.
He believes that men should make self-checking a part of their routine and take action if they notice anything unusual.
‘As far as checking your breasts, I would tell a man to do that regularly, just like you check your testicles for testicular cancer.
‘I’m still checking my other breast and it’ll just take a few minutes to make sure there’s nothing unusual there.’