The so-called celebrity effect is often a double-edged sword. However, in the field of health, it can often achieve twice the result with half the effort in positive publicity. For example, Angelina Jolie has deepened the attention of women around the world to family breast cancer. Recently, British director Steve McQueen, who won the Oscar for Best Picture for "12 Years a Slave", took the initiative to call on men to pay attention to prostate problems based on his own experience.
Director Steve McQueen, 55, is famous for his film 12 Years a Slave, and has directed many other films such as The Hunger, Shame, and Blitzkrieg. Five years ago, he was awarded the title of knight by the British royal family for his outstanding contribution to art and film. Recently, he, Professor Sukes Minhas, a urologist at Imperial College London, and Ben Characcon, a surgeon at St. Thomas' Hospital in London, were interviewed together, revealing their privacy of having prostate cancer several years ago, hoping to raise men's awareness of the disease.
On March 2, 2014, local time, in Los Angeles, the United States, "12 Years a Slave" won the 86th Academy Awards for Best Picture, with director Steve McQueen holding the Oscar. Visual China Photo
Masculinity leads to low awareness of disease
After the surgery, McQueen has fully recovered. He said that the first person he should thank is probably his father Philbert, who was diagnosed with the disease in 2000, which made him aware of the crisis in advance. "He is a very strong person and never took a sick day before the diagnosis. He went to the hospital because he had several accidents and wet his pants for no reason, which made him feel embarrassed. It turned out to be advanced prostate cancer." McQueen revealed.
Before that, let alone prostate cancer, even the prostate gland itself was a relatively unfamiliar topic for the father and son. "When my father got sick, it was hard for me to accept it because I didn't know what prostate cancer was, and I didn't know exactly where it was in the human body. I knew nothing about it."
In addition to the illness itself, what made him, as a son, reflect on the role of so-called masculinity in his father's death. "He was very strong, a construction worker, very hardworking, leaving home early every day, returning home at 8pm, and going to bed; on weekends he would go out and hang out with friends. As far as I can remember, he never got sick, not even a cold. So when he was diagnosed with advanced cancer, I couldn't help but think back to the years before, was he really healthy, or was he just holding on? I think this kind of masculinity can lead you down the wrong path, and it's totally unnecessary."
Doctors estimated that his father could live for another five years. In the end, Philbert, then 61, died at the age of 67. According to Steve McQueen, his father's quality of life was very poor during those six years. "It was a struggle, the pain when going to the toilet at night, the difficulty when urinating, it was terrible."
Dr. Ben Charakon, who later performed surgery on McQueen, felt the same way. "The previous generation had little awareness in this regard, and they didn't talk about prostate problems. Even if they did, they would use euphemisms and say that they had some minor problems when going to the toilet. Family members, especially children, were often unaware of it. Men of that generation were not good at talking about their problems in this regard, and even today, many men are still like this."
In addition to the wrong idea of avoiding medical treatment, the long-standing racial and class differences in the British society in which they live have also led to a higher probability of prostate cancer among men from various disadvantaged groups. Professor Minhas, a urologist, said that there is no gene for prostate cancer, but the incidence of prostate cancer in black men in the UK is significantly higher than that in white men, which is believed to be caused by social and economic factors. As an Indian, he used his father, a first-generation Indian immigrant, as an example to explain: "He works in a sheet metal factory in London. Even if he feels uncomfortable, he would not think of going for a check-up. What he cares about is where can I go to make more money to feed my children?"
The report released by the NHS Race and Health Observatory also shows that non-white people have significantly lower trust in the NHS than white people, which makes them reluctant to go to the doctor. Among the non-white people surveyed, 51% said they had experienced some form of discrimination in hospitals at all levels in the UK, and 38% of Asians and 49% of blacks said they were treated differently because of their race.
Therefore, McQueen hopes that through his own personal experience, the relevant government departments will pay more attention to this matter. According to statistics, more than 50,000 British people suffer from prostate cancer every year. A national early screening program has always been recommended, but it has not been implemented yet, which has also led to a 16% increase in the death rate of prostate cancer in the UK in the past 50 years.
It was after his father's death that Steve McQueen began to undergo regular prostate cancer tests. He tested mainly for PSA values, which are prostate-specific antigen values. If the value is too high, it may be a sign of prostate cancer, but it may also be just prostate hyperplasia or urine infection. For five years, his overall value was not high, but it increased significantly over time, and the rate of increase was higher than expected. So, although there were no symptoms, Dr. Minhas arranged an MRI and biopsy for him, and the results were positive, confirming that he had early prostate cancer.
Surgery completed during filming of Blitz
On October 15, 2022, Steve McQueen learned of the diagnosis. He always remembered this day because he was in Los Angeles to receive an honorary award from the Oscar Museum. When he received the call, he was hiking in the Hollywood Hills with his wife Bianca Stitt. "I was a little depressed when I first received the call, but it was fine later. That night, I gave my acceptance speech in front of stars such as George Clooney and Julia Roberts. It was really interesting, winning the award and being told that I had cancer on the same day."
Steve McQueen (center) on the set of "The Flash."
At the time, he was filming "The Blitz" and originally wanted to wait until the filming was finished before undergoing surgery, but he soon realized that it would be difficult for him to concentrate on filming without surgery. So he chose to undergo surgery during the filming break, in November 2022, and returned to work two weeks later, because the delay in filming might involve a lot of filming expenses.
On the set of "The Flash", he didn't tell anyone that he had cancer or that he had just had surgery. "I stayed in the hospital for two days and then went home. I didn't want anyone to know about it because there were more than 200 people on the set, and if they were paying attention to your physical condition, then... So no one knew about it until two years later."
The surgery removed several small tumors from his prostate, and while he already has two children, he lost his fertility, but his erections and urination were not affected. "I had no problem with that, I wasn't planning on having any more children, so it was no problem. Interestingly, the day after surgery, I was thinking, I better not have an erection because I still have a catheter in there. But I still felt it. Chalacombe told me that was great, and that if that happens, it bodes well for recovery."
While recovering his health, McQueen began to think about what he could do to raise awareness of prostate cancer among British men. "We sent out about 5,000 letters in three areas of London, encouraging people to do PSA tests. Originally, the hospital was worried that there would be long queues and it would be overwhelmed, but only five people came," Minhas said.
McQueen teamed up with Morgan Freeman and others to shoot the short film "Awkward".
In addition, McQueen also shot a short film called Embarrassed, starring Chiwetel Ejiofor, Morgan Freeman, Michael Ward and Idris Elba, hoping to remind more black men to pay attention to this topic, "Don't avoid talking about this issue because you feel embarrassed, because it is a matter of life and death." As a result, not many people watched the film.
McQueen's series Small Axe features an episode based on the life of novelist Alex Whittle, who died of prostate cancer in March.
Five years ago, McQueen filmed a series called "Small Axe", in which the fourth story was adapted from the life story of his good friend Alex Whittle. However, in March this year, the black novelist also died of prostate cancer at the age of 62. "Alex is a good man, but also another person who doesn't know enough about prostate cancer, so it was too late when he was diagnosed. And it's especially sad to think that Alex is dead and I'm still alive." McQueen said.
Therefore, McQueen finally decided to disclose his privacy of prostate cancer to further raise public awareness of this issue. After all, prostate cancer is treatable. "A few days ago, I was chatting with a relative and she said I was lucky. But I actually hate to hear this because we could have provided more information to everyone and could have saved a life. But on the other hand, I am indeed lucky. It was my father's death that alerted me and saved my life."