Council leader reveals cancer diagnosis on radio show

Graham Butland told BBC Essex he had been diagnosed with advanced prostate cancer that had spread to his bones

A council leader has revealed on a live radio phone-in that he has cancer.

Graham Butland, Conservative leader of Braintree District Council in Essex, said he was diagnosed in December with advanced prostate cancer that had spread to "most of the bones" in his body.

"I am living with it; I am not dying of it. I think, very much, having a positive approach is so important," he told BBC Essex,

Mr Butland, who called during a phone-in on Sonia Watson's Breakfast show about King Charles’s cancer diagnosis, said: “I think it is very important we do talk about these things."

Mr Butland, who is also a county councillor for Three Fields with Great Notley, encouraged every man to have a prostate-specific antigen (PSA) test regularly.

He said he was getting regular hormone injections, adding: “I am learning what hot flushes are all about."

Mr Butland said: “I feel I’m a fraud as I’m feeling fine and people say to me 'Oh, you are looking well, Graham.'”

He said he was keeping active and “determined to live as much as I can, for as long as I can”.