Bench press champion urges men to be vulnerable

The UK bench press champion is urging men to "be vulnerable", as he prepares for life-saving surgery.

Ram Patten from Frome is having surgery on Friday to remove cancer from his intestines.

He has urged other men to get tested for cancer and to "speak out and be vulnerable".

"At the gym, everyone's high-fiving and smiling and hugging but that's not normal because everyone's day is different," Mr Patten said.

"If I want to encourage other men to speak out and be vulnerable, I've got to lead by example," he added.

"I'm really scared. I'm never scared. For me to admit I'm scared, I feel like a defenseless baby."

He said he would "never have known" he had cancer, had he not taken part in a charity initiative to get tested.

"I have been and to this day am entirely asymptomatic," he said. "I went to the British championships, I won, I beat everyone I was going up against."

Ram Patten said he wanted to continue to live for his wife Candice

When he found out he had cancer, he had tried to be strong for his wife Candice, Mr Patten said.

"Everyone responds differently to this kind of news. I don't think you can prepare yourself," he said.

"Both of us walked out very stoically in silence. Candice, I'm sure, was thinking she had to be strong for me.

"I could hear my breathing. As soon as I sat down in the car and closed the door, I just burst out in tears."

Mr Patten said he was a "headstrong" individual and it had come as a "shock" to give up control to the cancer.

"I've always been able to do difficult things because I never considered death as a real option," he said.

"For the first time ever, I was not invincible. For the first time in my life, this was something that was entirely out of my control.

"I had an alien growth in me that I just wanted to rip out, and I can't."

Mr Patten said it was important for men at the gym to interact with each other

He said he wanted to share his story to inspire other men to open up about their feelings.

"There have been times at the gym when I would go to the car, close the doors, cry and then go back and act like everything is fine and I'm sure other men have felt the same way," Mr Patten said.

"It's important for men to interact with each other and it's important for women to feel safe amongst them and express themselves in front of a man without worrying that this person is going to ridicule them."

Towards the end of 2023, the NHS launched a new campaign to get men to look out for the warning signs for various cancers.

This awareness campaign follows recent NHS England research which revealed nearly half of men (49%) did not know blood appearing in urine was a cancer symptom.

The survey also found more than a third of men (39%) would wait for a recurrence of the symptom before visiting a doctor.