Actress Gemma Oaten has opened up about her dad’s cancer battle in the hope it will raise awareness to help others.
The Emmerdale star and her father, Dennis, appeared on today’s Lorraine to suggest if he had been diagnosed earlier, the cancer in his prostate would not have been as advanced.
He was first diagnosed in 2011 when he was 64, and treatment has kept it at bay.
However, the family recently discovered the cancer has returned.
“As it was so aggressive I was always aware it could come back,” Dennis told Christine Lampard, as she stood in for Lorraine Kelly on Thursday’s show.
“I have done really well. I just take it as it comes,” he added.
Gemma, 34, said they are now speaking out to urge men to regularly have health check-ups.
As she struggled to contain her emotions, Gemma said they wanted to help others by raising money for research into fighting the disease. She also wants to try and ensure it doesn’t affect her family again in the future.
“It’s come back a second time. I’m aware it can keep coming back again and I don’t want that – if I am lucky enough to have children – for future generations,” she said.
Gemma said she first noticed her father’s symptoms on a family holiday after he’d been fit and well all his life.
“Mum and I noticed. He was urinating a lot in the night, he wasn’t himself. It was all-inclusive and he wasn’t eating and drinking it all!” she recalled.
“It was all little things and that’s why they call it the ‘silent killer’. It was my mum who encouraged him to go the doctor. Thank goodness she pushed him to go and about a week later we were told it was stage three prostate cancer.
“There aren’t enough warning signs and that’s why we are trying to raise awareness and money with Prostate Cancer UK.”
Dennis added: “I am passionate about awareness. If I had been aware, it wouldn’t have been as aggressive, we could have caught it earlier.
“That’s why I tell people now from the age of 50, just because you are fit and healthy doesn’t mean it is not inside you. It could have been inside me for months or years. It just takes a blood test. Be proactive.”
Gemma said she was told of her dad’s diagnosis the day before she started filming on Emmerdale as Rachel Breckle.
“It was the best day of my life and the worst day of my life,” she said. “We are a strong family and everything happens for a reason. If he was always going to get cancer, then I told him, ‘I’m glad it was now, as he has to stay alive and watch me on Emmerdale. So that’s it, tough, you’re not going anywhere’.”
The actress revealed her heartbreak on Instagram last year on hearing Dennis’ cancer had returned.
Alongside a beautiful picture of herself and her father she wrote: “Overwhelmed by the love and support of this man. My Dad. He is just one (I’m fortunate to have many sw) of the most amazing men In my life. He is all. My world.
“I think I’m allowed to say now that prostate cancer is back again with a vengance and pushing to lymph nodes. But. BUT. That’s OK, because this man, my Dad, Is a fighter. Praying for all good outcomes for all good people.”
Gemma, who appeared in Holby City earlier this month, and Dennis will be doing a fundraising March For Men on 23 June in Leeds.
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The event, organised by the charity Prostate Cancer UK, aims to raise money and awareness, with other walks taking place around the country.
Dennis said he is looking forward to taking part as it will be a “celebration”.
On his cancer returning, he said: “I don’t worry about it. I take every day as it comes”.
For more information and support visit prostatecanceruk.org