Architect Chris Roche and, right, with his recent awareness-raising ‘Marlon Brando’ look

AN architect has warned of systemic failings in the cancer screening process after two years of errors, cancelled appointments and delayed tests.

Chris Roche, who lived and worked in Camden Town for many years, said mistakes had led to a late diagnosis of prostate cancer that may have put his life at risk.

Mr Roche has shaved his head and blackened his eye in a striking new “Marlon Brando” statement look aimed at raising awareness about the difficulties in accessing the simple tests most common cancer for men.

Mr Roche told the Tribune: “It’s diabolical and shameful. Every day is another day of miscommunication and mistakes. You can’t speak to anybody about it.”

He said he wanted to encourage family and partners to ask questions of men about the prostate cancer and the benefits of getting tested early, adding: “Men are crap about talking about health and seeking help.”

Mr Roche has called on the health secretary James Murray to investigate why he got lost in the system and his “high grade cancer” was not spotted sooner.

In a letter to the front bencher, he asked Mr Murray – a former councillor is Islington – to look at what is “going wrong for the treatment of vulnerable prostate cancer patients” and warned that he had been “shocked” by the “avoidable delays that could mean the difference between life and death – literally”.

Mr Roche, who moved to the south coast during Covid, said he first started asking for a “PSA test” for prostate cancer from his GP two years ago.

But he said he was “actively discouraged” from the process until just before Christmas due to him not having obvious symptoms.

The blood test results then raised concerns, leading to an MRI scan in February where he was told he had “low risk of cancer”.

But he later discovered the warning should have been that he had “low risk cancer”.

He was advised this was curable and that the condition would be monitored. A biopsy was taken, with results showing “a moderate level of cancer”.

Health secretary James Murray

A potentially critical scan in February was cancelled with 90 minutes’ notice, he said.

The rescheduled appointment was then cancelled again, until Thursday, and then cancelled again. The reason for the delay was to do with supply chain failures of a radioactive dye used in the test.

Mr Roche said he had seen letters between hospital consultants giving the wrong information that were blamed on typos, all part of “a long list of miscommunications”.

He has now discovered he now has a serious grade of cancer and will need radiotherapy.
Prostate cancer begins when cells in the walnut-sized gland under the bladder grow uncontrollably. It is the most common cancer in men, particularly those over 50. In most cases the cancer grows slowly, but there are other aggressive types that require urgent chemotherapy treatment.

Symptoms include changes in peeing, pain or burning, difficulty maintaining an erection, pain in the bones in thighs or pelvis.

Mr Roche is an architect who set up the 1104 practice in Bonny Street Camden Town before moving to Archway.

He became a well-known community activist who led a campaign as chairman of the Junction Road Traders Association to prevent a “wholesale demolition of Archway”. The scheme was replaced with the “much more sustainable development” that is there today.

Mr Roche also designed the peace memorial in Mornington Crescent for Far East Prisoners of War which was funded by donations from readers of our sister paper, the Camden New Journal.

On his new look, Mr Roche said the image reminded him of Marlon Brando’s Colonel Kurtz in Apocalypse Now, particularly the famous scene when his character considers the realities of war.

Health chiefs announced yesterday (Wednesday) that thousands of patients with “low risk” cancer will be treated with a new high power precision radiotherapy.

The SABR (stereotactic ablative radiotherapy) technique is said to target the disease more effectively than standard radiotherapy and help reduce side-effects and also slash the number of treatment sessions.

It is already offered to some NHS patients with other types of cancer, including lung and brain.

NHS England said that of the 55,000 men diagnosed with prostate cancer each year, around 17,500 are deemed low or intermediate risk. The health body expects all 48 radiotherapy centres around the country to start offering the treatment “within weeks”.

Chris Roche in Nigeria in 2008

• BACK during his time in Islington and Camden, we reported how Chris Roche had been signed up by the Nigerian government to create offices for its charitable initiatives and facilities.

He also designed £2million factory and training centre for 300 women from poor rural communities, and a nursery school in 2008.

It was just one stop on a jet-setting career which saw his design practice named as the ninth most influential in the world, by Esquire magazine.

He believed his firm was chosen after winning a series of prestigious awards for a development overlooking Tate Modern on the South Bank.

He had beaten 10 major rivals in a design competition for the new European headquarters of international advertising and software house DDS, whose plush new offices are close to Tate Modern in Southwark.

Closer to home, it designed the flat conversion of the Eastnor Castle pub in Somers Town, and many other projects big and small.

He was also a past candidate for the presidency of the RIBA.