'MEN can get breast cancer too' - that is the vital message from one Reading man who battled the disease after initially shrugging off symptoms having found no lump.

This week marks Men’s Health Week (June 15-21) and Andy Manson is among those raising awareness that men can get breast cancer too.

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Two years ago, six men who had all had the disease joined forces with breast cancer charity Walk the Walk and created the 'Men get breast cancer too!' campaign determined to raise awareness and hopefully to save lives.

Now many more men have joined the original six all united in sharing their experiences.

Their aim is that eventually everybody will know that men get breast cancer.

Andy Manson was diagnosed with breast cancer after feeling a “stabbing pain” in his left nipple.

He explained: “My immediate thought was that the pain was probably something bad.

“I was aware at the time that men could get breast cancer – I knew it existed, but I didn’t know what to check for.

“I just had pain (which wasn’t constant) and no lump which I could feel – so at the time, I ruled it out.

“I thought there always had to be a lump.”

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Andy said the pain went away but months later when it came back his wife Michelle urged him to get checked out, but he continued to think it was “just a fatty deposit”.

He said: “However, my GP’s first reaction was that he didn’t like the look of my breast - I saw the other partner at the surgery the following day and was referred very quickly to the breast clinic at the Royal Berkshire Hospital.

“That was my first inkling that something was wrong.”

Andy has a biopsy and a mammogram and went back for the results a couple of weeks later.

“It turned out that I did have a tumour, but not one which I could feel - I was diagnosed with stage four breast cancer, which had spread to my lymph nodes”, Andy said.

He added it was “like the cliché – you never expect it to be you”.

Andy was diagnosed just before Christmas and had a mastectomy and lymph node removal in early January.

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Chemotherapy started in mid-February and Andy said: “I dealt with it fine most of the time, but when they switched the drugs, I reacted badly to them and was in hospital for four days being sick.

“Radiotherapy really took it out of me, too – I felt so tired, I could barely walk.”

Andy’s cancer is now in remission but he is “continuing to take the drug Tamoxifen”and have an annual mammogram.

He said: “I’m so thankful that I listened to my wife.”

He continued: “Because of my own experience, I’m passionate about raising awareness that men get breast cancer too.

“There are still large numbers of people who don’t know - I’ll tell anyone who wants to listen and I even show them my scar, just to prove it!”

For more information about Walk the Walk's campaign, click here.