Feargal Sharkey reveals cancer diagnosis after going to doctor with ‘sore throat’

The rockstar was only seeing his doctor for a sore throat

In an interview with The Express, the Derry man recalled seeing his doctor after coming down with a sore throat, but the GP was keen to give him a full health MOT too.

"About a year and a half ago, I randomly went to see my GP with a sore throat," said Sharkey, who is an environmental campaigner nowadays.

 "I’ve known him long enough but he goes, 'No no, you're that bloke that used to sing. So if you're telling me you've got a sore throat, something is going on'. So my doctor, being the beautiful, wonderful, awkward, cantankerous old man that he is went, 'Oh Feargal, by the way, you're 65 now, I'm going to run the full battery of tests.'

"Two days later, it turns out, I began a journey which led to the [diagnosis] of prostate cancer."

"Thankfully, that's all now been resolved a year ago. But here we are, had it not been for that random visit to my local GP, I would never have known that I was at that point carrying prostate cancer, and if it had not been seen to, it could have been a very different ending and a very different outcome to my life," added the 'Teenage Kicks' punk rocker.

With one in eight men over the age of 45 facing the same reality, Sharkey proceeded to urge them to get their blood tested.

"It’s quite astonishing to think that in this country right now, one in eight men have prostate cancer. Most of them don't even know it. So go and have the blood test and if you're lucky, you'll walk away," he said.

As well as a physical examinations to check prostate - known as a digital rectal examination (or DRE) - men can undergo blood tests, biopsies and MRI scans.