Prostate cancer kills one man every 45 minutes in the UK. That statistic hung over a group of air traffic control engineers long before they lost their colleague Kieran Clark. He was 38.
He died in November. Now three of them are cycling 1,000 miles from Land’s End to Sumburgh Airport in the Shetland Isles.
Rob Thick, from Prestwick, and Hadley Gibson, from Carlisle, started the 10-day challenge on July 1. They expect to finish July 10. The money they raise — they have already collected more than £7,700 of a £20,000 target — goes to prostate cancer awareness.
But the real story is what happened before Kieran died. His male colleagues from the NATS Outstations team got PSA tests.
Prostate-Specific Antigen blood tests are the standard screening tool. They are not perfect. They produce false positives.
They miss cancers. Men argue about whether they are worth it. Kieran’s teammates did not argue.
They just went. One of them, Paul Graham from Paisley, came back positive.
He had no symptoms. None. He had surgery to remove his prostate.
Now he waits to find out if he needs radiotherapy. A spokesperson for the group said Paul feels Kieran saved his life through his own death.
That is a hard sentence to write. It is also a true one. This kind of story has happened before.
In 2018, a group of Scottish firefighters cycled from John O’Groats to Land’s End after a colleague died of testicular cancer at 29. He had ignored a lump for months. His friends raised money and talked openly about checking yourself.
In 2021, a team of paramedics walked the length of Hadrian’s Wall after a dispatcher died of bowel cancer at 41. She had put off a colonoscopy.
Her colleagues did not put theirs off. The pattern is grim and consistent. Young men die of cancers that are treatable when caught early.
Their friends — often the same kind of men who would never see a doctor for a routine check — get tested. Some of them find cancer.
Some of them live. Kieran Clark was an air traffic control engineer for NATS. He worked at multiple sites across the country.
The cyclists are riding from his most southerly site, Land’s End, to his most northerly one. That is not a coincidence. That is a geography of grief mapped onto asphalt.
They were due to pass through their home regions between July 5 and July 7. People will wave.
People will donate. People will read the fundraising page, which says: “The ride is being organised in memory of our good friend and colleague Kieran Clark, who we sadly lost in November to prostate cancer at the young age of 38.” It adds: “Kieran was someone many of us worked alongside, shared good times with and his loss has been deeply felt by a huge number of people.” That is the tribute. The PSA test is the legacy.
Public Health England says men over 50 can request a PSA test from their GP. Black men and men with a family history of prostate cancer are advised to start earlier.
Kieran Clark was 38. He had no known risk factors. He died anyway.
His colleagues were younger than the recommended screening age. They got tested anyway. Paul Graham is alive because they did.
The cyclists will finish on July 10. They will be exhausted.
They will have raised money. The number that matters is not the pounds. It is the one positive result that turned into surgery instead of a funeral.
