State-of-the-art 10 minute PSA tester donated to the Royal Surrey by Rotary Club of Guildford

Left to right: Tim Sharp, Prostate Project Trustee; John Davies, Consultant Urological Surgeon RSCH; Terence Patrick,President, Rotary Club of Guildford; Mike Wills, Vice President, Rotary Club of Guildford; Roger Frais, MD Cariad Technologies Ltd

Outgoing Rotary Club of Guildford President, Terence Patrick, had a special reason to raise money for The Prostate Project – his brother Dr Clifford Patrick died from the disease 2 years ago. So when the PP needed £8000 to fund a state-of-the-art 10 minute PSA tester, Terence and his Rotary colleagues took up the challenge.

PSA (prostate specific antigen) is a blood test which can detect prostate cancer in its early stages. It took them a year to raise the money and recently they proudly handed over the unit to John Davies, Consultant Urological Surgeon at The Royal Surrey County Hospital. The new unit is manufactured by Qualigen in California and imported by Cariad Technologies of Harrow. It is currently only the second of its type in use in the United Kingdom and is capable of producing lab quality PSA readings within ten minutes… a great improvement on the average two weeks wait that most patients are faced with. John Davies said “The FastPack tester will make a significant difference to the smooth running of our Urology Clinic - the ability to give patients instant PSA results will make our procedures more efficient and also relieve a lot of patient stress. Lab delays are one of the main problems we encounter all the time so anything that helps speed up the diagnostic process is a huge bonus”.

The Rotary Club of Guildford’s Prostate Cancer Fund was set up as the President’s chosen charity for 2004/5 and funds were raised throughout the year at a variety of events. Several anonymous donations have also been made during the year to raise the £8,000 required for the machine’s purchase.

Well done gentlemen – The Prostate Project is extremely grateful to you all.