It was when Lise Fox first noticed the thickness of the radiation door that her composure crumbled and she began to cry.

Walking into the hospital radiation room, it finally hit her that her husband had prostate cancer.

Mrs. Fox, who had been so emotionally strong up to this point, says: "I walked outside and just cried. It was a very emotional time."

Three months and 35 radiotherapy treatments later however, Edmund Fox is back at his job as a supervisor for BCM McAlpine.

But it will be another two years before he and his wife know whether he is free of cancer.

Mr. Fox, 62, was first diagnosed with prostate cancer in the summer of 2007. A PSA (Prostate Specific Antigen) test at his doctor's showed elevated results and urologist Charles Dyer then recommended a biopsy.

"Fortunately for me it was an early diagnosis but the cancer was one of the most aggressive," says Mr. Fox.

"For me it was like someone had showed me the door and said, 'There is the end of your life'. But when I opened the door there was nothing there."

Following a further consultation with Dr. Dyer, Mr. Fox decided to have his prostate removed.

"I thought the operation would cure everything but in a matter of six to eight weeks it progressed to where it was of very great concern," he says.

The couple then attended the cancer centre at Princess Margaret Hospital, Toronto, Canada, in May last year. Mr. Fox was initially to have a course of radiotherapy but specialists first recommended hormone therapy to bring his PSA down to near-zero.

He was prescribed pills to suppress his testosterone and scheduled for an injection every three months. One doctor told him that without any action to treat the cancer, he would only have "a 50/50 chance of survival".

When Mr. Fox returned to Bermuda, subsequent tests showed the therapy seemed to be working, and his PSA level fell from 2.7 to -0.1. He finally underwent radiotherapy at Princess Margaret Hospital in February.

"I had 35 sessions in three levels of intensity," he says.

"I was really fortunate in that I did not have any serious side effects until the last week or so. I had some physical pain but I just had to keep thinking it was temporary.

"Now the doctors are optimistic, and so we should be too."

Edmund returned to the Island on April 30 and began back at work last month. But he still has to take tablets every day and must receive a hormone injection every three months, until a three-year period has elapsed.

"The treatment will not be seen to be successful for another two years, when I come off these hormones. But I'm optimistic. Well, I have to be," says Mr. Fox.

"If God is on my side, and I think he is, then he may allow me to stay here for another few years.

"But sometimes it is terrifying because you don't know what your future will be. You think, 'Tomorrow I will be here but next month I might not be'."

Mr. Fox, of St. David's, is now trying to boost his immune system through regular exercise and by eating as healthily as possible.

He also wants to set up a support group in Bermuda for men with prostate cancer.

"One of the biggest helps I found, on my first visit to the hospital in Canada, was a support group (Man to Man)," he says. "They really helped, right down to picking you up from your apartment or hotel to take you to hospital.

"I would like to see a local support group in Bermuda. I would also like to see mothers talking to their sons about prostate cancer at an early age, because early testing is so important.

"The Digital Rectal Examination is not something you really want to talk about, but we are all human beings and it is no slight on your masculinity.

"It is an embarrassment when you first have it, and it took me a long time to even get up the nerve to do it," he says.

"I even delayed it for four years I was told I should start at 45 but didn't start until the age of 49.

"But you have to realise it's just a medical procedure, and if you have a good sexual relationship with your wife then you want that to continue years into the future.

"If you have cancer that will not happen, because sooner or later the cancer is going to win. So whatever it takes, it's very important that you have the DRE and PSA test."

Mr. Fox says: "I have heard stories about a 'machoism' among some Caribbean and black men who feel their sexual prowess is somehow compromised by prostate cancer and who are in denial. But that was never an issue with me."

Mr. Fox and his wife have two children Matthew, 29, and Melissa, 25.

"For my wife and I, the preservation of my life was more important than the preservation of male machoism. I want to grow older to see my grandchildren grow up."

He stressed the role women have to play in early diagnosis of the disease. He admits that sometimes, men need a push to go to their doctor.

"It's important that women push their boyfriends or husbands to go and get tested, even if they need to badger them, because it is so important. Prostate cancer is not just an old man's disease."

He adds: "I believe a wise wife is a blessing and Lise was wisdom all the way."

The couple have been married for 33 years.

Mrs. Fox, 59, says: "When Edmund was first diagnosed he was very depressed. He kept thinking that he might just have three months to live and that was that.

"But the support group really helped him, telling him 'It's not a death sentence'. They were very good at putting everything in perspective.

"At first, I didn't say anything, but I was worried. I told him I would be there for him through the whole run, to support him and everything.

"I said, 'Don't worry, I will handle everything'. I tried to organise everything so all he had to concentrate on was going to the hospital.

"But I cried a lot without him knowing, because I was really upset."

Mrs. Fox, a retired accountant, says during her husband's radiotherapy treatment she would stay in the hospital waiting area.

"I'm quite an emotional person and so I didn't want to see all the machines where he had the treatment, because it would have made it more personal," she says.

"I wanted to stay outside so I could be strong enough to help him go through the everyday things. But one time Edmund asked me to take a photo of him and one of the technicians, and so I had to go in.

"Just seeing the thickness of the door to the radiation area and a machine, that's when it really struck me that he had cancer. I walked outside and just cried.

"I was so upset Edmund had to go through all that. It was a very emotional time."