One left me speechless and needing to put my eyes back in my head, the other didn’t. Was it the van or being strapped to the top of a plane, 1000ft up and travelling at 150 miles an hour. Which is which?

I spent a lot of time worrying about my weight in the lead up to the flight. With a strict weight limit of 14 stone and me fluctuating at the 13.5 mark I was quite worried that I wouldn’t make the weight. I couldn’t imagine telling all those that had donated that I was too fat to fly. I pretty much stuck to the normal routine of regular exercise, portion size and what I was eating but the worry never went away. Even with a strict absence of treats, I still hovered around that weight.

The kids were initially worried about the wing walk but Joel was more worried than the others. Firstly, I had to apologise that I didn’t tell them directly and I had to explain to Joel that I was not actually walking up and down the wing as the name suggested. That dissipated some of the worry but not all. One morning as I was taking him to his nan’s before school, I decided to tackle it head on.

I told him there was nothing to worry about. Thousands of people had done it before me, so it was very safe and I had no intention of falling off or the plane crashing. I added that fear was something to face head on, embrace it and then do something with it. I wasn’t afraid so he had no reason to be. I added, with a laugh, that I wasn’t afraid of anything except dogs. I ended with saying that he would be the first call that I made when I came back down. He was happy, smiled and went back to the game that he was playing on the tablet.

We still had about 10 minutes left of the journey, enough time to get me thinking about an old friend. I have mentioned him before, a guy that was in the same year as me at school just a different class. He is currently stage four prostate cancer and is now in a hospice. He won’t talk to me anymore. I have tried but my text’s go unanswered. Not because I had done anything personally to him. I just represent what he could have done with his health. It bothers me, I wish I could pretend that it didn’t.

With Joel, I wanted to take the talk further. I wanted him to be there to see it for himself and take part in some way. When I told him he could come with me his face lit up and I added that he had a very important part to play by praying over me before I went up. He nodded excitedly.

One of the last pieces of advice I was given a few days before was that up there was probably not the best place to poop myself. I would definitely try to remember that one. On the morning of the walk, I weighed myself fully clothed without trainers and I was 13.5 ½. I smiled and cursed in the same breath. I smiled because I had nothing to worry about and cursed because I’d had nothing to worry about after all the worry that I went through.

Earlier on this journey I read somewhere that if my clothes were inappropriate, they would supply a jumpsuit. I didn’t fancy – excuse the pun – jumping into some jumpsuit that potentially hundreds of other people had before. So, I looked at purchasing my own. Then the idea came to me to attract business sponsors who would want to publicise their logo on it – like they do on those formula one jumpsuits. Two pastors at my church had recently died – I knew them both well and they were loved by everyone. I was driving my car and had the thought of honouring them via labels on the jumpsuit.

I may not have many of them, but they were both genius moments. I spoke to the families about honouring their loved ones and they all absolutely loved the idea.

I donned the jumpsuit and with one of the charity directors and my son, we set off on the hour and a half journey to the aerodrome.

I had called their weather hotline the day before which confirmed that the walks were going ahead. The whole week had been cloudy, threatening rain. The day before it had rained but today was perfect. The aerodrome was quite full as there was some charity sky diving going on in another section. They did a wide range of ariel activities there and there was also a museum. We walked over to the wing walk hut and I signed in and got weighed. Turns out I was a good 4kg within the weight so all that worry about nothing. There were three of us walking that day and after signing our wavers we just had to sit and watch the mandatory video. The video told us what to expect, how to mount and dismount the plane safely and how to indicate to the pilot if we want to end the flight early.

Then the wait began.

Now, I had figured out the best running order for the wing walk. I really wanted to be in the middle. You don’t want to be first – if the pilot has had a bad day, then you might get a piece of the tail end of it. You don’t want to be last because if any bolts on the plane or harness have been working their way free during the day – not good. Therefore, the best spot would be on the second walk.

They had other ideas.

The other two were a couple so they would share a plane, one after the other. I would have my own plane in between their walks. That was the end of that plan then.

I had a five minute warning before it was my turn to board the plane. I sat down and called over Joel. He prayed over me, we embraced and I made my way to the plane. I had confided in a couple of people that I was likely to get a nerve or two when I was climbing up the plane, but someone looking in would never know it. I also thought I would have one of those ‘Dave – life choices moment’. I surprised myself because neither came. Not once. I was handed a pair of ear plugs and goggles and made my way over to the plane. I climbed up to the harness and the staff member strapped me in, asked me to confirm the distress signal, gave me the thumbs up and then disembarked. The pilot asked me if I wanted him to take it easy with the flight or be more vigorous. I told him to give it his best shot.

It was just me and the pilot now.

He started up the propeller and off we trundled to the top of the runway. Then we stopped. I could feel the wind blowing strongly, the pilot waiting for it to subside. I remember that’s when I crossed my arms wondering what the hold up was. Within a minute or so the wind died off and he lined the plane up on the runway.

The propellor sped up and we were speeding down the runway. The strange thing was I didn’t know we were airborne until about 20 seconds afterwards. With no forward reference and limited visibility directly downwards, it wasn’t until we really began to climb and bank that it became obvious how high up we were. I thought the plane would only reach a few hundred feet up. It was actually a thousand feet up. The wind was relentless and deafening. Depending on what manoeuvre the plane was doing, my movements were limited.

I started off shouting but realised pretty soon that if I swallowed a fly it would probably take off half my head with the force. Best that I just shut up.

I had no idea that I would enjoy it so much and be so fearless.

There was one point when the plane was flying downwards, that I could see the different field types and it was as if we were moving in slow motion. One of the most beautiful sights I have ever witnessed.

Ten minutes later and it was all over. I didn’t want it to end. I could have stayed up there another twenty minutes easily. One of the most amazing experiences I have ever had. More importantly however, I thought £2000 would be wonderful. The Go Fund Me is just short of £4000. The walk has captured everyone’s imagination. People were not just donating, they were talking about prostate cancer and the videos have been viewed over 200 times and shared worldwide. All of it has been more than I could have imagined, more than I could have ever hoped for.

Someone said to me I had really ruined it with a wing walk, how can you top this?

Hmm something with sharks or fire… ?

It wasn’t a plane that stopped me in my tracks and left me speechless but a van. Not any old van but the only prostate cancer testing van in the country. I was in Acton attending another prostate cancer table event, when I turned the corner and there it was. It’s not often that I am speechless, but this was definitely one of those times. This was my very own oasis in the desert moment. I had heard about it’s existence but had never seen it.

The ManVan.

It turns out that the organisers of the event I was attending had arranged for the ManVan to be there on the day. When I put my eyes and tongue back in my head, I introduced myself to the volunteers of the charity The Prostate Project and the man in charge for the day, Mike. If you go onto their website the mobile testing unit is not even the main service, you could miss it if you were not looking for it. In September 2024, after the culmination of a local fundraising effort, the keys were handed over to a specially adapted van to the Royal Surrey NHS Foundation. Their catchment area is what is covered by the Royal Surrey NHS Trust – Surrey, Hampshire and West Sussex.

The ManVan can be booked by high profile events, associations, festivals, sporting clubs or companies that want to offer the opportunity for men to be tested or to purchase a home testing PSA kit. They just ask for a contribution towards their expenses. The volunteers drive the van to the locations, process the registration and there is a phlebotomist who will take the blood sample. They can process 50 tests in a day from the hours of 10 to 3pm, Thursday to Sunday. The samples are then couriered on the same day to an NHS lab to analysed. Any patient who has an abnormal result will be contacted by a clinical nurse who will talk them through their next steps. They are already fully booked up until February 2027.

With the government’s stance on screening (or not screening should I say), they do not have full autonomy as to where they can test and they do not make a song and dance of advertising it and rubbing it in the government’s face. At a recent event, they tested 200 men in two days. As Mike put it, “We are testing healthy, middle aged white men and not the people we should be testing”

I asked about places such as Croydon and Brixton. He said they would love to do those areas, but they are far outside their catchment area. However, they could possibly stretch to Croydon. My eyes lit up. I had been standing there about ten minutes, and I said I had better go inside and introduce myself to the organiser before she thinks I’m a no show.

I came back out later and got some photos with them and the van. I will be honest that I had now been distracted by the thought of having the ManVan in Brixton square and offering men an awareness talk and testing either before or afterwards. I mentioned that to Mike. He added that they are also restricted sometimes by a lack of volunteers. Naturally, I volunteered to help in anyway that I could and will even drive like an OAP Sunday driver for their events. I took Mike’s details and called him for a follow up chat just after the walk. He said that very same day they have a trustees meeting and he would mention what I had asked.

The result of the trustees meeting is that the ManVan will be coming to both Brixton and Croydon. I just have to sort out the locations and necessary permissions.

We are going to have mobile prostate cancer testing in Brixton and Croydon in 2027.

Does this get any better?