Male breast cancer survivor David Eggleton bravely stepped forward to urge women to be properly scanned.

David, who underwent an operation to remove a breast four years ago, is making the most of his new lease of life by improving his golf handicap and umpiring for the Astons his local cricket club at Aston Tirrold and Upthorpe, near Didcot.

In the UK, only 150 cases of male breast cancer are diagnosed every year compared to about 35,000 new cases in women.

Yesterday David, 65, returned from a six-monthly check-up at the Churchill Hospital, Oxford, when doctors again gave him the all-clear.

Doctors and cancer research charities say men are even less aware of the disease than they should be because of a reluctance, particularly among older men, to talk about symptoms. Until recently, almost half of Oxfordshire male cancer sufferers showed fairly advanced signs of the disease.

It had spread to other organs making treatment more difficult, said Prof Adrian Harris, director of the Imperial Cancer Research Fund oncology unit at the Churchill Hospital.

David, of Wantage Road, Rowstock, near Didcot, said he immediately consulted his GP after noticing a slight swelling under his right breast and a soreness around the lymph gland under his arm.

That was towards the end of October 1994. Hospital tests revealed the cancer and on January 2 1995 his right breast was removed.

"The diagnosis was a terrible shock," he said. "I did not know what the future held or if I was going to die."

Proudly displaying his scar, he said: "As far as I am concerned, I have beaten it." Male breast cancer facts *More than 150 new cases of breast cancer in men occur in the UK every year.

*Most men who get breast cancer are over 60.

*About 60 per cent survive for at least five years

*t is treated with surgery, radiotherapy and drugs

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