WATCHING Emmerdale hardman Cain Dingle receive the devastating news that he has aggressive prostate cancer, soap fans were left ‘broken’.

In emotional scenes that aired this week the character, played by Jeff Hordley, was told his only chance of survival was an operation after an agonising month-long wait when a tumour was found by mistake.

For Andrew Coverdale it was a case of art imitating life.

The 63-year-old is the man behind the storyline, sharing his own experience to inform scriptwriters and Hordley to help raise awareness of a disease that affects one in eight men.

Prostate cancer is now the UK’s most common cancer, with more than 64,000 new cases diagnosed each year.

“Watching the scenes was very emotional,” Andrew, who lives a stone’s throw from the Emmerdale studios in Leeds, tells Sun on Sunday Health.

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“It’s great the soap is running this powerful storyline to raise awareness.”
Like many patients, Cain experienced no symptoms and faces the prospect of temporary incontinence and erectile dysfunction – both possible side effects of surgery.

The special episode on Wednesday night was shown from Cain’s perspective, including his inner thoughts, which fans praised as ‘beautifully portrayed’ but admitted they were ‘a mess’ of tears.

It’s the most vulnerable viewers have seen Cain, who first came on the scene in 2000 for six years, returning in 2009 as a permanent character.

Jeff tells The Sun: “We want to tell the story of a man who doesn’t normally talk about his feelings, and I think that’s probably why they chose my character for this particular story.

I was fit and healthy but for peace of mind, I asked my doctor if I could have a PSA check alongside a routine cholesterol check. I did it for my wife

Andrew Coverdale

“It’s the not talking, not wanting to talk about erectile dysfunction, that you can become incontinent, the fact that you might never be able to have sex again.

“It’s things like that, which are really damaging to males and their egos, and having to confront that and talk about it is the way we want to go down.”

Like Cain, Andrew had no symptoms before his diagnosis in June 2019, aged 57.

And yet, in order to save his life, he was robbed of his sex life, and says he will never be able to make love with his wife again.

Hugs and kisses, he says, are now so much more important.

Nerve damage meant sex life was ‘finished’

“Like Cain, I found it hard too, and I also wanted to be strong for my wife and kids,” says Andrew.

“But since my operation, I’ve shown my emotions a lot more.

“It’s great the soap is running this powerful story to raise awareness.”

Soap bosses worked closely with Andrew and other prostate cancer patients, alongside leading charity Prostate Cancer UK.

The charity says that up to 76 per cent of men experience erectile dysfunction as a result of treatment for the disease.

But it’s not all doom and gloom – prostate cancer survival has increased in the last 50 years in the UK.

Ten-year survival has increased from 21 per cent in the 1970s to 79 per cent in 2018, says Cancer Research UK.

Andrew, a retired corporate bank relationship director, who has been married to his wife, Anne, a retired cancer nurse, for 35 years and has two grown-up children, had his operation to remove his prostate gland in September 2019.

Called a prostatectomy, the operation removes part or all (radical prostatectomy) of the prostate gland.

The prostate gland, the size and shape of a walnut, is situated close to nerves that control erections and urinary functions.

Andrew, who was warned of the potential risks, says: “My wife and I talked it through and we both decided robotic surgery was the right option for me.

“I wanted to be here for my wife and children and that was more important.”

He underwent a five-hour op at St James’ Hospital in Leeds.

Afterwards, he was told the cancer had started to penetrate beyond the prostate and tissue around it was removed, too.

“They were confident they had got it all,” Andrew says. “I was so relieved.”

Andrew needed a catheter fitted for two weeks and took two months off work to recover from the operation.

It was during this time that the nerve damage caused by his surgery became very evident.

“My sex life finished,” he says. “It wasn’t important to me because my wife and I fully knew this beforehand.”

Some men may never get an erection after surgery again, while others do.

But Andrew says their lack of sex life has not affected their marriage in any way.

“She thinks exactly the same as me, as do our kids,” he says.

“I am fit and healthy, I can still drive and do all the things I used to be able to do. This one thing (sex life) is immaterial to everything I’ve retained.”

He pauses, smiles and then says: “Besides, if my wife had not pushed me to get a PSA, I wouldn’t be here. It is as simple as that.

For younger men, they may not realise [a test] might be the end of having a sex life and having kids. But it is the only option currently available, so I encourage men to get tested

Andrew

“The husband of one of her work friends had died of prostate cancer a few months earlier and he’d had no symptoms.

“I had no symptoms, and I have my wife to thank for my life.”

Checking for prostate cancer typically begins with a blood test for a marker called the prostate-specific antigen, also known as a PSA test.

A high reading can indicate the prostate is unusually large, which could be a sign of cancer — although it may also be benign or the result of infection.

Andrew had a PSA check more than a year before his diagnosis and got a result of 5ng/mL, higher than the 3ng/mL considered a risk for his age.

Andrew immediately saw a consultant who ordered an MRI scan, which discovered he had an enlarged prostate – a common issue in older men.

After a biopsy, he was given the all-clear and told to return a year later for another PSA check.

“But after six months, even though I didn’t have any symptoms, I wasn’t sleeping,” he says.

“I kept worrying about why my PSA was slightly higher and I asked for another.

“It came back at 8ng/mL but they weren’t concerned and told me to return in another six months.”

It was on his third PSA test recording a level of 14ng/mL in March 2019 that another MRI and biopsy were carried out.

Push for more testing

Three months later, Andrew and his wife were delivered the devastating results that he had prostate cancer.

“Like Cain, trying to be brave, I outwardly tried to put on a brave face too, as I’d always been brought up to have a stiff upper lip,” says Andrew.

“But inwardly, I was so upset and in turmoil.”

Telling his two grown-up children was, he says, incredibly difficult.

“But they were very supportive, as was my wife, Anne.”

Andrew’s workplace was also understanding, though he decided to retire 18 months ago.

Like Emmerdale, Andrew also hopes the plot will encourage men to speak to their GPs about a PSA test.

But he warns men must be mindful the tests can record both false negatives and false positives – part of the reason why they have not been recommended to routinely screen men on the NHS.

“It’s not accurate enough to decide if you have prostate cancer or not,” says Andrew.

He also warns that, while the test is a vital first step, it can bring unnecessary worry.

Though his concerns were, in the end, warranted, many men with abnormal PSA results do not have cancer, or it may be a cancer that never causes symptoms or risks shortening their life.

The path to treatment is rarely simple and must be weighed up.

“For younger men, they may not realise it might be the end of having a sex life and having kids,” says Andrew.

“But a PSA test is the only option currently available, so I encourage men to get tested.”

Men at higher risk of prostate cancer are encouraged to ask their GP for a test.

Your risk of prostate cancer increases if you’re over 50, if you’re black, or if you have a family history of the disease.

Laura Kerby, chief executive at Prostate Cancer UK, says: “We’re grateful to Emmerdale’s team for working with us to shape Cain’s prostate cancer journey, working with our Specialist Nurse and speaking directly to our supporters, like Andrew, who have been through diagnosis and treatment.

“We hope [it] drives more men to understand their risk of prostate cancer and what they can choose to do about it.”

“We hope [it] drives more men to understand their risk of prostate cancer and what they can choose to do about it.”