Breast cancer is generally seen as a women's disease, but while the chances of women being affected by breast cancer are far greater than men's, men are also vulnerable to the condition Glenn Cooper shares his story during Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

IF he hadn't had an unrelated cough that was irritating his partner, Glenn Cooper believes he could have been diagnosed with breast cancer too late for it to be treated.

It is, perhaps, unsurprising that when the 64-year-old found a tender lump behind his nipple that cancer didn't spring to mind. While breast cancer affects one in eight women, it affects just one in 870 men.

But Glenn wants to make sure that other men are aware that they can get the disease and encourages them to check their chests on a regular basis for changes.

"In January, I had a cough that wouldn't go away and my partner got fed up of it, so I went to the doctor," says Glenn, from Fareham.

"As he was writing the prescription I asked him if he could check my breast. I had noticed a disc behind the nipple, which was tender."

Glenn's doctor didn't feel that there was any cause for concern but sent him for a mammogram to be sure.

"I was there with 47 ladies waiting for my mammogram," he says.

"I was sent for an ultrasound and a biopsy too and when I saw the breast surgeon, he said that as I had no history of breast cancer in my family and was generally low risk, the chances of breast cancer were slim and that it was probably a cyst.

"When I went back to see him for the results, he said 'I'm gobsmacked; you have breast cancer."

Glenn says that rather than getting upset he just wanted to get on with treatment.

"I'm from Manchester and I'm quite pragmatic," he says.

"I said 'how do we deal with this'."

Glenn can't praise the treatment he received from the NHS highly enough.

"The hospital was fabulous," he says.

"From my diagnosis to my mastectomy was three and a half weeks, and we were away on holiday for one of those weeks.

"It's a disease where if you had to wait for weeks between appointments or for treatment, you would start to worry, but thanks to the speed that all my treatment happened, I was able to get on with things."

Glenn's chest muscle and two affected lymph nodes were removed and sent for analysis to America to see if it had spread and chemotherapy was necessary.

"When I went back for the results, they were inconclusive, so after talking to a lot of people, I decided to go ahead with the chemotherapy, as an insurance policy. I know my partner would have worried for the next ten years if I hadn't had it."

Glenn completed his course of chemotherapy in August and was relieved to be told that he did not need radiotherapy. He now has to take a daily hormone tablet for five years.

He was fortunate not to suffer any side effects other than hair loss from his treatment, and has been able to continue running his small business, selling records on the internet.

Glenn says that he was very lucky to catch his cancer so early, and wants to help other men to do the same.

"I was aware that men could get breast cancer, but I never thought about it," he says.

"If I hadn't gone to the doctor with the cough, which was unrelated to the cancer, I could have left it two years before I went about the lump, and it might have been too late for it to have been treated.

"I don't know how long it had been there; it was probably a few weeks, but it could have been a few months."

Glenn says that he could tell medical staff, used to seeing women for breast-cancer related treatment, were surprised to see him in their clinics, but adds that he had a huge amount of support from both NHS staff and staff and volunteers at charities Macmillan Cancer Support, and Wessex Breast Cancer Haven in Titchfield.

"I've had all the support I have needed from the breast cancer nurses, my oncologist, the Macmillan centre at the hospital, and since going to the Haven, and have not felt at any stage that I am a man in a woman's world," he says.

"The only frustrating thing is that the literature tends to refer to women and if I had only read the literature and not spoken to people, I might not have been aware of some of the services on offer."

Glenn is now in a mission to raise awareness amongst men that they can get breast cancer and encourage them to check themselves.

He has been visiting workplaces and speaking to men about the disease to help get the message out.

He also believes that it is important that people talk about cancer and reach out to each other.

"If I'm up and doing something, my brain isn't festering," he says.

"I believe in the positivity of doing things and talking, or your mental being goes as well.

"When I was a kid, cancer was the Big C, and wasn't spoken about, but talking is very important and is linked to more positive outcomes."

Glenn is throwing himself into speaking on behalf of Wessex Breast Cancer Haven, where he has received support and complimentary therapy, and helping raise funds and awareness for the charity."

Glenn says that his outlook on life has become even more positive since his diagnosis.

"I always say to Marguerite, my partner, 'If I wake up, I'm happy,' so it has had an effect on me. I've always been quite a pragmatic person and got on with things, and even more so now," he says.

"To me, it's all about making sure you put as much into every day as you can.

"I could have been told that the cancer wasn't treatable, so I feel that I've been as luck as I could having gone through it."