Mick Harford says he’s been overwhelmed and brought to tears by the support for his prostate cancer battle, including messages from from former Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson – but now he wants to use his profile to persuade more men to get tested.
The 62-year-old will have to step away from his role as Luton Town assistant manager for up to 12 weeks when he begins a long three-year course of radiotherapy on August 16 due to the disease spreading from his prostate to his hip and his lymph nodes, meaning surgery is not an option.
Prostate cancer is now the most common cause of cancer in men, and now the most commonly diagnosed of all cancers in the UK, which unfortunately means one man dies every 45 seconds in the UK.
After a long and illustrious career in football, where the words brave, tough and hard have been used to describe him, Harford knows that his biggest battle is just beginning.
“This is the biggest fight,” the former England international admits, adding: “I did fight my way to have a career and hopefully I can fight my way through this one.”
He won’t be alone. Among Hatters his hero status has long been cemented, while the support he’s received throughout the game, he says, has left him emotional. None more so than from arguably the greatest manager of all time.
It’s well-known that Ferguson wanted to sign a then 32-year-old Harford in 1991 before Manchester United were pipped to the old First Division title by Leeds United. The Scot believes the forward would’ve been the key to winning what would’ve been the Red Devils’ first title in 30 years, and though Harford instead moved from Luton to Chelsea in 1992, the former striker is clearly still held in high esteem.
“I got a message from Sir Alex Ferguson and it makes me emotional still now to think that he contacted me and was telling me his best wishes,” Harford said when recalling how the United legend contacted him while he was on the golf course on Wednesday as part of an annual charity day for his best friend and former Town player Andy King, who died of heart disease six years ago.
“It was really amazing that he did that. We had a little text conversation. I’m just really, really proud and the respect I have for him to contact me was amazing. The things he said about being strong was brilliant and I can’t thank him enough.
“I had a message this morning from Dennis Tueart who is one of my heroes at Sunderland Football Club. I used to watch him when I was a kid. He’s not much older than me but he’s one of my heroes. Just for him to get in touch with me is fantastic. The LMA (League Managers’ Association) have been in touch with me, trying to help me and all the organisations, the PFA (Professional Footballers’ Association). Just the outpouring of love, I didn’t expect.
“(I’ve had) plenty of messages saying, ‘my relatives have recovered from this’, some with bad news, some with great news, a real general outpouring of feeling for me and I have been taken aback and in honesty, a lot of it brought me to tears and made me really emotional. I have had some fantastic messages as I said and great encouragement from people – it just gives you a big lift.”
“I have been taken aback and in honesty, a lot of it brought me to tears and made me really emotional.”
But though he’s received support from his current club, former clubs like Chelsea, Birmingham and Derby and former Hatters like Ricky Hill and John Hartson, who himself survived testicular cancer, Harford wants to use his profile to make more men aware of the prostate disease.
He said: “(I’ve been) absolutely overwhelmed with it, when I saw all the messages come through via my phone, Whatsapp, Twitter and Facebook, I’ve been overwhelmed, I’ve had messages from all kinds of people.
“It’s scary, and I just have deep gratitude for them, it’s so much appreciated by me and my family for all the kind messages I’ve had, it’s been fantastic, but it is about me, as I want to get better, but also I want to try and spread the word and try and help people.
“I just want to pay it back by trying to help and just get a simple message out there to the public, to try and help them, to encourage them and make them aware of it,” he said.
Prostate cancer is a disease which mainly affects men over the age of 50 and the risk increases with age, while it is higher for black men or those with a family history of the disease, so they are advised to speak to their GP from the age of 45.
And Harford, who was diagnosed two days before Christmas, but publicly revealed it this week, knows from experience how difficult it is to get men to get checked out.
“I always used to look at Jeff’s (Stelling) badge on his jacket when he did Sky Sports on a Saturday afternoon and I never thought that would be me to be honest with you,” said the Hatters No.2.
“I knew what it (prostate cancer badge) was, I was totally aware of it but as footballers, most of us think we are invincible at times, a lot of men think they’re invincible and a lot of people think they will never get it, but it isn’t true. It can catch you out anytime and I keep trying to repeat myself, put please get tested and make sure you are OK.
“You know what men are like, they leave it and leave it and leave it. I’ve had friends who’ve said, ‘I won’t go to the doctors, I don’t want to bother them’. But please, please get yourself tested. It’s so important that you do that. It might be nothing, but just go and do it. It’ll save you a lot of heartache.
“Obviously I want to get better, I don’t want people to contract this disease, it’s a terrible disease and getting cancer is not very nice, but the main reason for it is to encourage people to go and get tested, to make people aware of that disease and anyone can catch it, anyone can get it, anyone can contract it.”
After receiving his diagnosis, Harford says some of the first people he called were Luton’s chief executive Gary Sweet and Manager Nathan Jones, who has said have been first class in helping and supporting him.
Then, he said: “Personally, I started thinking about the Luton Town fans, there’s 10,000 fans, not all are men, but the people who turn up to Kenilworth Road, if I can help any of them, then I’ll be delighted, but if I can help anyone, anywhere, that is the main reason we decided to as a football club, to put it out there and make people aware of it, hopefully I can just carry on helping people.
“When you get diagnosed with it, it’s a massive body blow, your whole life comes to a halt and the support I’ve had has been amazing, it’s just been very frantic for the last seven, eight months, trying to keep it quiet and I’ve come to the point where I thought the best thing to do was to let people know and I just want to help as many people as I can.”
Prostate cancer often has no symptoms so men shouldn’t wait to see changes before they act. There is a 30-second online risk checker available at prostatecanceruk.org/risk-checker.
Anyone with concerns about prostate cancer may contact Prostate Cancer UK’s Specialist Nurses in confidence on 0800 074 8383 or online via the Live Chat instant messaging service: www.prostatecanceruk.org. The Specialist Nurse phone service is free to landlines and open from 9am to 6pm Monday to Friday, and 10am to 8pm on Wednesdays.
There is also a Beds Prostate Cancer Support Group for men aged 40 and over, and they have prostate health screening home testing kits available, which is a Prostate PSA test you can do at home with a simple finger prick.
You can order a half price test today by registering at www.bpcsg.org.uk (usually £22.99 but costs £11.50 when using BPCSG as the code when registering.)
About Prostate Cancer UK
- Prostate Cancer UK has a simple ambition – to stop prostate cancer damaging the lives of men and their families.
- Investing into finding better treatments and tests that could save thousands of lives.
- Working with the NHS to make sure men get access to breakthrough tests and treatments.
- Spreading the word about who is at risk of prostate cancer, especially to those at higher risk.
- Supporting people dealing with prostate cancer and providing health information.
- Visit prostatecanceruk.org now to help beat this disease.
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One of the happiest memories of my life was meeting Mick in Portugal during the GJ pre season. Let my son and I have pics with him, blushed and told me to shut up when I said he was my childhood hero and how thankful I was to him for getting us back to the champ. Plus how pleased I was for him. The man is a gent and an inspiration. I’ve booked my test.
Here’s to winning yet another fight Mick!