Like many who have been diagnosed, Peter Gandolfi would not have known he had prostate cancer if he didn’t ask his local GP for a PSA blood test – now he wants all men to know how important it is to get checked as they get older.
Peter, aged 55 from Millicent in South Australia, was diagnosed with prostate cancer following a regular blood test showing a sudden increase in his PSA in February this year.
By May he underwent a radical prostatectomy. The cancer was at stage 3.
“I have been very fortunate,” Peter said. “Six weeks after surgery, my PSA was undetectable.
“Still some rehabilitation to go but if it wasn’t for my wife Kathy and my local GP, I wouldn’t have had a clue that I had prostate cancer.
“Kathy insisted that I have a blood test and my GP referred me to a urologist after noticing a spike in my PSA – I had no signs whatsoever.”
A motorsport tragic, Peter had purchased a tarmac rally car just prior to being diagnosed with prostate cancer.
“My prostate cancer experience highlighted to me the importance of PSA testing and I thought the new rally car would be the perfect billboard,” Peter said.
“During my down time following surgery, I thought about signwriting the car with the ‘Get Checked’ message.
“With help from the PCFA and my local signwriter, we worked on the design and while I was recovering at home I would spend an hour or two a day in my shed attaching the new livery to the car.
“It was a great distraction during recovery and kept me entertained while stuck at home.”
Peter said blokes are very involved in motorsport.
“While I’ll never be competing at the V8 Supercars level, I can do my little bit at getting the message out to competitors and spectators at the club level.”
Peter’s first outing in the newly sign written rally car proved the message was working.
He said he pulled up at a service station at The Bend Motorsport Park in July and the bloke next to him asked if he was a doctor?
“No, but I was a patient,” Peter told him.
“A lucky one?” the chap asked.
“Yes, a lucky one,” Peter told him, realising that the signwritten car had worked in that it had given him the opportunity to give the perfect response.
“Only because I got checked with a simple blood test,” Peter said, encouraging him to think about doing the same.”
Peter’s stickered up rally car spent the following morning running around The Bend at a track day and he hopes the message it carried inspired more of the mainly male participants to think about getting checked for prostate cancer.
