Doctors are reminding the borough’s men to face up to male cancer as a national campaign is launched to raise awareness about the disease.

As Blue September gets underway, Barking and Dagenham’s clinical commissioning group has released figures showing 188 men in Barking and Dagenham died from cancer in 2010 – the last year for which figures are available. Many of these deaths, it says, could have been prevented by men getting help earlier or by living more healthily.

Dr Waseem Mohi, the CCG chair and a GP at the Abbey Medical Centre, Barking, said: “It’s so much more common for my male patients to put a brave face on something that could turn out to be really serious.

“We are more able to help if we can detect cancers early.”

He is urging men to visit their GP if they spot blood in stools; unexplained changes in bowel habits such as prolonged diarrhoea or constipation, or unexplained weight loss; a persistent cough or coughing up blood; persistent breathlessness; unexplained tiredness and weight loss; an ache or pain when breathing or coughing; needing to pee more frequently, especially at night; difficulty starting to pee; straining to pee or taking a long time to finish; blood in pee and pain when peeing or during sex; appearance of new mole or a change in an existing mole; a painless lump or swelling in the testicles; a dull ache or a feeling of heaviness in the scrotum.

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