Our Founder...

 

In 2015 Kevin Logan at the age of 55 was diagnosed with metastic prostate cancer’ what you might call a significant moment in his life.  His immediate response was to acknowledge “Your life just goes on hold and it is almost in freeze frame when you get diagnosed with any cancer”. 

 

Because it had spread to his bones, the father of Georgina, Jo and Charley was been told it would be controllable for two to five years, but it was not curable.  It could have been caught sooner if he had been screened.

 

Kevin, whose mum died from brain cancer aged 47 in 1989 and dad died from lung cancer aged 79 in 2014 was determined to do something to help others who might be affected by Prostate Cancer and with his partner Viv and friend Des Morgan set up The Loganberry Trust a registered charity. 

 

Working in conjunction with The Graham Fulford Charitable Trust which has been doing PSA screenings for about ten years, The Loganberry Trust set about hiring venues and planning testing programmes.

 

By doing PSA tests early you can catch prostate cancer early and the numbers they are catching are more than twice the national average but the closest they get to Swindon is Reading - there is nothing in Wiltshire.

 

But this is a cancer that can be pre-screened and something can be done about it, yet there is no national screening. There are plenty of screening programmes for women, for breast cancer and smear tests, but there are not any for men.

 

With the PSA test, a high score does not necessarily mean you have cancer and a low score does not mean you haven’t. However, if you know you have a high score you can do something about it.

 

The Loganberry Trust organises drop-in sessions, which involves a man filling out a basic questionnaire and a nurse taking a small blood sample to be sent off and tested. Individuals with high scores will be contacted directly by a medical practitioner.

 

Kevin's story...

 

"When I was diagnosed with Metastatic Prostate Cancer, I experienced a range of emotions - anger, fear and of course, disappointment; after all, I am still a young man with a wonderful partner, three lovely daughters and a very recent addition to the family, my grandson. To hear my Urologist tell me that my life expectancy was somewhere between two and five years was not something I was expecting to hear – well, not yet anyway; but there was no turning back the clock, the die was cast and no amount of navel gazing was going to change matters.

 

The first hours after my prognosis were taken up with a few tears, emotional phone calls and lots of hugs - they really do help.  Friends rallied round, some with tearful eyes railing at the unfairness of life, while others used ‘black humour’ to diffuse the awful thoughts they must have had, but didn’t quite know what to say and how to say it.  Apart from “Can you leave me your watch in your Will”, the most common question was, “what are you going to do about it” - the ‘it’ being the cancer.

 

Discussing it with my friend Des over a cup of real coffee and numerous biscuits (custard creams are his favourite), we laid out a plan to create the Loganberry Trust, something which could provide a way for men to have their PSA level tested and, as a side effect, to promote Freemasonry.  We took the view that the Masonic Halls within the Province were the ideal venues for holding testing sessions; all we had to do was persuade the management committees that the idea would work – oh, and to raise the money to do the job.

 

Prostate cancer is the biggest killer of men over the age of 45 in the UK, but early detection (from a simple blood test) and early treatment can save lives.  Through the power of Twitter, I spotted that the Province of Cheshire were holding Screening Sessions and, after a few telephone calls, made contact with Graham Fulford and his team of phlebotomists from Warwickshire.  Together, we embarked on a testing program, primarily aimed at Freemasons; a group of men in the ‘ideal’ age range for being at risk of Prostate Cancer.  It soon became obvious that this group was providing higher than average results for high PSA readings (11.7% red/amber) and for confirmed cancers."