'My mates refused to talk about my breast cancer'

A man who was diagnosed with breast cancer has said he lost more male friends than he "thought possible" because they "didn't want to talk about" his illness.

David McCallion, 61, from Oldham, went to his doctor in 2019 after noticing his nipple had become inverted.

He was then told he had breast cancer - becoming one of fewer than 400 men in the UK to be diagnosed with the disease per year.

Mr McCallion said: "Men do have breast tissue and that is my main message to men - do what your female partners do, check yourself every month in the shower."

He told BBC Radio Manchester: "You'd say that you had got cancer, and that would be a shock to some people, and then...when you turn around and said it was breast cancer the men that I knew in my life at the time just went straight to the bar or went out the back door.

"They just didn't want to talk about.

"At the beginning, in 2019, I lost more friends than I thought possible."

In the following months Mc Callion had a mastectomy, chemotherapy, radiotherapy and hormone therapy, but was further diagnosed in 2023 with incurable secondary breast cancer in his lungs.

Mr McCallion said the stigma around breast cancer in men meant that it was often found very late, meaning it was often more advanced.

Amy Hirst from Cancer Research UK said Mr McCallion was brave in speaking out, and would help others in the process.

"The more you open up to your social circles, the more likely you are to seek help," she told BBC Radio Manchester.

"So it can have that ripple effect and raises awareness and encourages more people to do the same."

She said men should regularly check their chests up to the collar bone, armpit and their nipples for lumps.

Symptoms can also include nipple inversion, or retraction, oozing from the nipple and a rash around the nipple.

"Any change you notice that is unusual for you, its really important to get it checked out."