Two prostate cancer support groups have joined forces to offer free prostate cancer testing to Dorset men.

Weymouth’s New-Man Prostate Cancer Support Group and Bournemouth based Dorset PCaSO (Prostate Cancer Support Organisation) are working together, to provide men over 45 with free PSA blood tests.

Last year 47,000 men were diagnosed with prostate cancer and almost 12,000 men die annually of the disease.

This month Prostate Cancer UK, revealed prostate cancer killed more people than breast cancer for the first time becoming the third deadliest type of cancer in Britain.

But if the cancer is caught in its early stages before symptoms appear, cure rates - which have dramatically improved over recent years - are now more than 80 per cent.

According to leading urologist and robotic surgeon at Dorset County Hospital Naveed Afzal, symptoms like blood in the urine or back pain only happens in the later stages of cancer, once the disease has become incurable.

But chair of New-Man Prostate Cancer Support Groups, Paul Nichols said a simple blood test, called the PSA test, can determine whether men are at risk.

The test is not currently offered routinely to men by the NHS but the groups said they believe 'overwhelmingly' in giving men the right to make decisions about their own health choices.

Mr Nichols said test days held recently in Bridport, Maiden Newton, and Lyme Regis were able to give tests to more than 400 men.

The testing is conducted by trained phlebotomists who take samples which are then sent to the Dorset County Hospital laboratory in Dorchester for analysis and test results will be sent to the individual's home within a few days.

More than 85,000 men in the UK have been tested over the past four years and in Dorset to date, almost 5,000 men have been tested to date.

The support groups will be holding a test session at Willowbed Hall in Chickerell on Saturday, March 17 between 9.20am and 1pm.

Booking is essential as tests cannot be guarantee to anyone who arrives without an appointment.

Appointments are given in 20 minute slots and to book call Paul Nichols on 01308 458222 or David Harrop on 07843 704853.