Dermot Murnaghan health update: News presenter urges men to check their health after revealed he has stage four prostate cancer
Well-known news presenter Dermot Murnaghan has urged men to regularly check for prostate cancer after ‘fell through the gaps’ before his own diagnosis.
The ex-Sky News presenter, 67, announced last month he had been diagnosed with stage four prostate cancer, and Murnaghan has now admitted it “never occurred” to him that the medical tests he had for work did not include one for PSA (prostate-specific antigen).
Speaking at an event hosted by Prostate Cancer UK, he said: “For years, I thought, ‘That’ll do me’ - I’m getting tested basically once a year or every couple of years. It never occurred to me that they weren’t testing for PSA. I never went to my GP because I was getting other tests through the production company. So, that’s how I fell through the gaps and that’s how I had a massive wake-up call and want to share the message.”
Murnaghan urged men to be regularly tested for prostate cancer, and noted: “You can still get to the stage I have with no symptoms.” He continued: “You can insist on the test if you are in a high-risk group and under 50. If you’re not, I’d still get the test at 50.
“Go to your GP and they say you don’t need it, but say, ‘I want it.’ It is your right to have it. Just keep doing that every year or couple of years. Once you’ve got that marker, where your PSA is, keep monitoring it. The earlier you find it, the easier it is to treat, so check your risk in just 30 seconds with Prostate Cancer UK’s online risk and what you can do about it.”
Reflecting on his cancer journey, Murnaghan said he was “responding positively” to treatment and has “a lot of hope” for new trials and medical options. He said: “What’s astonishing is just how fast things are developing, even at last stage advanced prostate cancer, the programme that I’ve been getting only really was approved within the last couple of years.”
Murnaghan will be taking part in Sir Chris Hoy’s Tour de 4 fundraising bike ride for cancer charities, after the Olympic athlete, 49, announced he had a terminal diagnosis for prostate cancer last October. Murnaghan said he will be riding in Glasgow in September “alongside some incredible participants”.