The bassist of legendary south Essex rock band Dr Feelgood has issued a plea for men to be aware of the signs of prostate cancer and to get checked after admitting he put “his head in the sand”.

Phil Mitchell, 70, from Hockley, has been the bassist for Dr Feelgood since 1983, and has revealed he had urgent surgery at Southend Hospital in October after being diagnosed with prostate cancer.

He has praised the brilliant surgeons and staff at the hospital after his successful surgery, but is pleading with men to ensure they get checked for the life-threatening illness.

Now, he is preparing to perform a Dr Feelgood charity gig at Southend’s Palace Theatre on January 13, on behalf of the Spotlight appeal, which raises money to improve cancer services at Southend Hospital.

Phil was encouraged to get checked for prostate cancer after seeing the effects it had on his brother.

He said: “My brother was suffering, he’s been suffering with it for a few years, and he has had a bad ride, I wasn’t particularly displaying symptoms and through testing, they found the cancer which was moderately advanced.

“It was a close call, I had a full removal which they do with a robot, a radial prostatectomy which is a keyhole surgery. When I was diagnosed positive, they dealt with it very well and very quickly and the staff and nurses at Southend hospital were excellent.

“They analyse it, and they see if it’s broken out from the gland and for me there was no sign of it having broken out. I was lucky.Once I knew, my first reaction was getting it out.

“There are other treatments. There are radiology treatments for five weeks, but I just wanted it removed, other men should get checked and I’d like to say the staff at the NHS were brilliant, including my surgeon.”

Phil added that Dr Feelgood no longer has any of its original line-up, having lost two members tragically to cancer, including legendary Canvey-born guitarist Wilko Johnson, who died in 2022, following a long battle against pancreatic cancer.

“There are quite a lot of people, a lot of blokes like me who prefer to put their head in the sand. I have a younger brother. six years younger. who says he is going to get tested but it hasn’t happened yet,” Mr Mitchell said.

“I had a friend who passed away from cancer, it had spread to his brain, and it was only when he was in troeatment they realised he also had prostate cancer.

“Other people should get checked.”

He added: “There are side effects for a younger bloke, it’s not so ideal but I’m 70, I was worried about getting it sorted but where I play with Dr Feelgood, I was back on stage after a couple of weeks.

“I had the operation on October 26 and I’ve done 17 gigs since then. We are playing Colchester art centre and I try to play a bit of football too, I play for Zeus FC where I am the oldest member of the Southend veterans league.

“I have been very surprised by the number of men who said they have had it and there were a couple of guys having the same operation as me and I was chatting to them.

“I’ve met so many people and there a quite a lot of people who still don’t know about the importance of getting checked.”