KINGSTON, Jamaica —When Christopher Denny went for his annual check-up in February 2022, he expected a clean bill of health.
Instead, his Prostate-Specific Antigen (PSA) test came back slightly elevated with a result of 4.65. It was the first warning sign that would change his life.
“I was moving along merrily. It may not have been anything, but my doctor said I should see a urologist,” he said.
That simple referral began a two-year journey of tests, uncertainty and difficult decisions. Initial scans and biopsies showed mostly benign tissue, but his PSA levels kept climbing, eventually reaching a startling 24.5 in July 2024. Generally, any reading below 4 could be considered normal, but this had exceeded that amount six times over.
After weighing his options locally, Denny travelled overseas for a robot-assisted laparoscopic surgery, a procedure not yet available in Jamaica, called a da Vinci prostatectomy. This procedure was done in September 2024 to remove his prostate. He shared that the recovery wasn’t easy, but within months, his PSA results dropped to zero, where they have remained ever since.
Still, the journey has left its mark. “I’ll confess that my libido has not returned perfectly,” he said candidly. “You can have issues that affect you for a very long time. But I’m grateful to be alive and to be able to say the cancer is behind me.”
Now, one year later, inspired by his own experience and having seen many friends succumb to cancer, Denny freely shares his story during Prostate Cancer Awareness Month to encourage other men to take screening seriously.
Denny reminisces on some of the friends who have been affected by the disease.
“I have a close friend who was a medical doctor,” he says. “He went to live in Canada. He came down with one of the rare cases of early prostate cancer in his 30s, and he nearly lost his life even though he had access to all the medical care in the world. So, this is something that I’ve learned statistically can happen early in some cases and is more common among black men.”
While genetic predisposition and environmental exposures contribute to the development of cancer, unhealthy lifestyle behaviours remain an often under-recognised factor.
“I think my diagnosis was likely as a result of too fatty a diet,” admitting that he didn’t eat healthily, which caused him to become obese. He further went on to state, “as mentioned, I had no symptoms, but I want to live a life of example and accountability to my fellow man, my children and others, to make them more aware of those lifestyle choices and their consequences. We can live a very happy life while we keep good lifestyle habits.”
“The technology is available and affordable for us to treat this condition so that it can preserve your life,” says Denny. “We should not allow hang-ups about doing a digital test or a PSA to prevent us from knowing what our situation is.”
Denny also acknowledged the role of the National Health Fund (NHF) in his ongoing care. While he did not have an NHFCard at the time of his surgery, Denny now uses his NHFCard to subsidise his prescription medication and his annual PSA test. The NHFCard gives access to a number of subsidies for a wide range of medications, including those used in prostate cancer treatment, easing the financial burden for men across Jamaica.