After very careful consideration and following discussions with our medical advisers we’ve taken the difficult decision to temporarily suspend our PSA testing programme until the outcome of the current COVID-19 (Coronavirus) outbreak is known.Whilst we don’t want to appear to be suffering a knee jerk reaction, we do have a set of fairly unusual factors affecting our work in that many of our organising groups…Masons, Lions and PCSG’s etc…are past the first flush of youth and in the case of t...

You will all be aware of the changing face of the above, and the impact it could have on "large scale" events. We've received a few phone calls asking what our stance is and in general terms it will be to follow Government and NHS advice. If this includes any impact on our events we will contact all organisers immediately to agree the appropriate action to be taken. In the meantime having a supply of antiseptic hand gels available at events is clearly no bad thing.On a more positive note - a big...

When we launched the above initiative last year we were fully aware we only had a very small window of time to launch before the really busy spring testing season began, and we couldn't be more pleased with the way we've started, particularly given the initial teething problems with any new system.Empresa have already helped process well in excess of 4500 individual test bookings since launching a mere month ago. A fantastic achievement by Matt and his team!To prove how easy and successful it ca...

On Monday 27th January it was announced by Public Health England that there were 49,029 men diagnosed with prostate cancer in England in 2018 - the highest ever recorded - with 7,828 MORE men diagnosed than in 2017 ( a staggering 19% increase).Moreover, these figures relate to England ALONE..... if taken over the UK as a whole this figure will be well over 50,000!Why this sudden spike? We've no doubt the "Fry/Turnbull Factor" is a major contributor. When Stephen Fry and Bill Turnbull went public...

So read a headline in the I on Thursday 16th January which went on to say:"The number of men dying from prostate cancer in the UK has hit a record high, figures have shown. Statistics revealed that there were 12,031 deaths from the disease in 2017 - the most recent figures available - up from 11,637 the year before and 11,307 in 2014. In 2017, 48,561 men were newly diagnosed, with prostate cancer, up from 48,523 the year before and 47,864 in 2014. Only 47 percent of men are diagnosed at an early...

I'm delighted to announce that the new system "dress rehearsal" we ran on Thursday 9th January in Warwick went very well. We asked the 24 participants to complete an exit questionnaire on how they found the experience and the feedback was very encouraging. The session finished at 8:00 pm, the samples were collected at 8:50 pm and the results were available in "final letter format" by 11:00 am the following day! These were, of course, subject to a 100% audit (which will remain our policy for the ...

It has come to our notice that, very unfortunately, a number of "email" requested results have not arrived safely. This is due to our emails being perceived as "spam" by a few email providers, leading to us being effectively blocked.If, therefore, you've had a test with us and are still awaiting your result please contact us immediately on 01926419959 or by emailing info@psatests.org.uk and we will attempt to rectify the matter immediately. If there is any doubt about the email option working we...

Following the very successful Online Seminar progress is being made on all fronts and it is planned to set up the new "My PSA Tests" database during the rest of December. Matthew Brine and the team at Empresa are working hard at setting up the new personal result retrieval system and the standardisation of letters is well in hand.We would like to thank the Warwick In Need Charity for further funding for the hardware and software we'll use to support groups at testing sessions where the men have...

On Thursday 28th November the charity held a seminar at Stonebridge Golf Club and conference centre to outline it's plans to move towards an online booking and results availability service to enable it to handle more tests and for men to be able, if they so desire, to get their results quicker. Sixty five delegates travelled from literally all over the country to support the event which Graham Fulford opened with a dedication to David and Dorothy Baxter-Smith, a heartfelt thanks to a number of T...

Readers will be aware of the limitations of the PSA test and the search for a test that will support it. Well, this may now have arrived. Angle PLC have developed a new blood test aimed at identifying Circulating Tumour Cells (CTC's) to improve  diagnostic outcomes. The new test "Parsortix" has been trialled at Barts Cancer Institute following sponsorship from Orchid, the mens Cancer Charity, and Cancer Research UK. The trial revealed that in 93% of cases the Parortix test yielded a malignant ti...