Sat on a bench, surrounded by nine others, Maidstone dad Stuart Weaver is wearing a cheeky grin as all 10 of them sport “Bra T-shirts”.

But behind the tops, produced by charity Walk the Walk, is a serious message - breast cancer doesn’t just affect women.

Having launched its Men Get Breast Cancer Too campaign in 2017, initially with the support of six men, breast cancer charity Walk the Walk now supports 24.

The campaign, which has grown substantially over the past four years, aims to encourage men to check their chests regularly for lumps which could potentially be cancerous and is also working with 11 charities to raise awareness of breast cancer in males, which affects between 370 to 400 every year.

Nine of those men - alongside Walk the Walk founder Nina Barough - met up at The Holiday Inn, Kensington Forum in London, on Wednesday for their first face-to-face meeting since the coronavirus health crisis.

Until Wednesday, they had been meeting virtually on the last Thursday of every month.

“It is about raising awareness of breast cancer in men. That is the main thing,” said 52-year-old Mr Weaver, now battling cancer for the third time.

“I have been talking about it for the last 16 years but it is still one of those subjects that is not talked about that much. Even when you have Breast Cancer Awareness month in October, it is mainly all pink, all women and there’s not actually that much mentioned about men.

“Walk the Walk is the charity that helped to set up the men’s virtual meet ups that we have been having.

“I only joined last year but it has been going for about four years now, so that men can get-together, have a chat and meet up occasionally.

“Wednesday was the first time we have been able to organise a meet up face-to-face with the men since the pandemic.”

So how exactly should men check themselves for breast cancer?

"You can do it in the shower or laying in bed, just by checking your nipples," said the father-of-two. "You should just look for any lumps or any reddening of the skin.

"Then obviously, if there is anything, get it checked out straight away.

"There is no harm in it. If it is nothing, you will get told."

Mr Weaver made medical history when he became one of the first men in the country to receive the drug Herceptin, usually only prescribed for women, after he was first diagnosed in 2005.

Herceptin is said to be effective in attacking a particularly aggressive cell known as HER2 and Mr Weaver was told by Maidstone Weald Primary Care Trust he would receive the cancer drug in 2006.

In 2012, the cancer returned to his sternum and, five years after being given the all-clear for a second time, he was told he had secondary cancer as it has moved to his lungs.

Since then, however, Mr Weaver who is on long-term sick leave from his job working in payroll in London, says there have been no further major concerns and he is having treatment every three weeks.

Speaking about his journey, he said: "2005 was my first diagnosis with the initial breast cancer. Then, I had the mastectomy and lymph node clearance on the left-hand side and then chemotherapy and radiotherapy and Herceptin which I managed to get at the time. That was all done.

"It was 2012 that it came back in my sternum. I had an operation to remove my sternum at Guy’s Hospital in London which was successful and it was all within the margins of the sternum itself.

"So I was very lucky in that respect. They take it out and then replace it with something which is more like a gore-tex patch that they sow to the ribs.

"Then I had the chemotherapy and went through that all again. Then you think ‘I have got through it all again a second time, that’s it’ but then, in 2017, I had it come back in my lungs and that’s when they called it secondary cancer because it had gone to another organ. I have been having treatment every since then which is every three weeks.

"Everything is working alright at the moment. I’m feeling good.

"I think you also need your own sex to talk to..."

"My last scan was all stable which is brilliant."

The treatment he gets now sees him take intravenous drugs which target the cancer cells but he admits first being diagnosed was a shock.

"At that time, I don’t think I even realised until I went to the hospital. Not even when I went to the doctors," he said.

"I just thought it was a funny lump. Since then, I have spoken to people who have said ‘Men don’t get breast cancer’, and I have had to tell them ‘Yes, they do’."

He admits being in groups with other males with the condition has helped him.

“I’m in a couple of other support groups with women with breast cancer and another group with people that have other cancers as well. That is really good,” he said.

“But I think you also need your own sex to talk to.”

It was not until October 2007, at a Breast Cancer Care fashion show, Mr Weaver met another man who had the same disease as him.

"In 2005, everything was very new. I think there was only one pamphlet that Macmillan had done," he said.

"I didn’t know any men with breast cancer until I did a fashion show with Breast Cancer Care. There, I met another guy who had breast cancer.

"That was probably the first time I had met another person with it. Then, I met another man at a 2013 fashion show.

"But it has just been a few men over the years, really."

Walk the Walk says male breast cancer mainly affects men over the age of 50, and Mr Weaver believes, slowly, more men are taking notice.

He said: “It has been difficult to get that recognition over the years.

“With a lot of the breast cancer charities, the majority of people that get it are women, while there are only 370 to 400 men a year so it is a big difference. But it is still there and we do still need to tell people because the majority of men that do get it are older.

"It has been difficult to get that recognition over the years..."

“They don’t know they need to do anything about it. I think 80 to 90 die a year from it.

“The more we can tell people about it, and they can spread the word, hopefully, it is saving some more lives.”

Having been diagnosed with the disease for a third time, Stuart's wife Karen appealed for people to help Mr Weaver's childhood dream come true.

That dream came true as they raised more than £4,000 for him to buy a Vespa scooter in 2017.

He said: "That was when I was diagnosed the third time. My wife, Karen, set up a JustGiving page.

"I have always wanted a scooter and my brother had one when I was a child. It was amazing. I think 70 people or so in total put into the fund and I managed to get a 70th anniversary Vespa. That was quite apt."

There were fears Mr Weaver would have to sell the family home due to the financial turmoil caused by him being out-of-work for so long - but they remain at Tonbridge Road where they have been for the past 19 years.

“Over the lockdown, we have been very lucky that my wife, Karen, is in a good job,” he said.

“She works for the French Hospital in Rochester and she has been working throughout the lockdown. My son, James, works for The Co-op and he has been working throughout the coronavirus pandemic.

“They have been in and out the house still. I have been at home mostly, apart from hospital treatment and little appointments.

“But everybody has got through it which is great.”

Son James, 25, still lives at home while 23-year-old Josh has now moved out.

For more about Walk the Walk and to find out about their "Men get Breast Cancer too" campaign, click here.

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