CHARLY Boy Recounts His Prostate Cancer Story

Everybody knows the living legend called Charly Boy a.k.a Area Fada. He is by any means one of the most enduring showbiz personalities to come from this side of the continent. He has been around for a handful of decades. In his prime, he was a performer par excellence. His stage craft was phenomenal and the youths back then just couldn’t get enough of him. Today, already in his 70s, the Area Fada is still highly respected and regarded as one the strongest voices of the Nigerian youth. He has evolved over the years from a musician to a social commentator and an actor. He’s become a big brand, and one who commands a tremendous amount of respect too.

Often times, when Charly Boy is not livid about the state of the nation or venting his frustrations on some government policies, he loves to address societal and lifestyle issues. He loves to speak candidly with the male folks. And in his trademark style, he likes to address these issues throwing jabs at himself at other times, the public, while not failing to get his message across. This is why, sometime ago, when Charly Boy went on social media and cried out that his male organ had stopped functioning, only a few probably took him serious. They didn’t believe him. They figured the Area Fada was just fooling around and trying to engage his fans and the general public. But it soon came out that Charly Boy was not catching cruise at all, he was dead serious! He indeed could no longer get it up, he was down with Prostate Cancer!

Few days ago, City People Senior Editor, WALE LAWAL (08037209290) visited Charly Boy at his exquisite looking home in Ajah, Lagos and spent over two quality hours getting him to share his prostate cancer experience with us and why he is has gone on to set up a foundation to help men fight prostate. It’s quite a lengthy interview, but its vintage Charly Boy, you will love every minute of it.

So, let’s take this from the very beginning, sir.

A lot of people were shocked when you came out with this story that you had Prostate, more shocked were they when you also said “as una see me so, my “thing” no dey rise again”. A lot of people actually thought you were just catching cruise and all that, until the Prostate story thing came and you talked a bit about it. Just take us through it all again.

Like I always say, there are times and seasons in everybody’s life, a time when you like Egusi over Ogbonno, a time when you like power bikes over scooters, and so on and so forth. I thank God that through his grace, I’ve been able to have very active, fulfilling youthful years, so I don’t think I’m missing out on anything, but the reason I went to town with my challenges was simply because I had to get that message out, I had to tell my fellow men that it’s alright not to be alright. I had to tell my fellow men to desist from not being able to be as open as I was going about my challenges, that there’s something sinister, something technically wrong with not being open, and I know most of this comes from how we men have been brainwashed over the years. They say, “a man is not supposed to cry”, “whatever you have that is paining you, just chest it, don’t even tell anybody”. And the worst of all, “if you’re married, don’t let your wife know, because she might use the information against you” and all of that.

So, I felt obligated to go and speak on behalf of men, to say this is the wrongest thing that you can do to yourself. And of course, there were a lot of things that inspired that move in the first place, because Prostate doesn’t run in my family, not to talk about cancer, so when I discovered that that was what was going on, and being a health freak as I am, always checking and looking into my body, always having my regular checkups, I felt that something was amiss. And what was that? It started with the doctors, especially in Nigeria, even in Sweden, and abroad, who kept on telling me “oh, your PSA (prostate-specific antigen) is okay”, it never passed 3.0, I know some people, their PSA is like 17, 30, but my own never passed 3.0.

So, here I was feeling cool with myself, but I was going through changes, and what are those changes? There was a period that I was wearing diapers all the time, because I was constantly leaking. I was constantly going to the bathroom, no sooner had I taken a pee, in the next three minutes, I want to go back to the bathroom, and most of the times, by the time I get to the bathroom, I would have already peed on myself. There was no way I could have worn one underwear or boxer for more than half a day, because it would just stink the whole place, so I had to keep changing, but it was also attacking my brain. I started to have performance anxiety, because I noticed that my erections were becoming irregular, it was like my organ had a mind of its own, it would erect at its own time, not my time. I noticed that I had lost command of my own organ, and I couldn’t understand it.

As I said, the one that killed me the most was the performance anxiety, and after that, it was like I really had no interest in sex, not with my wife, not with anybody. Maybe I thought it was a “see-finish” situation with my wife, and I won’t lie to you, like I never lied to my wife, I said “okay, I would try other people, let me see”, and it was the same thing.

I had travelled all the way to London, to go and see the experts, I think that was two years back, and they gave me one funny pill, I think it was about 17,000 pounds, it’s almost 20,000 pounds today in the hospital. Where I go see that kain money? I no get money na.

What saved me was because I was talking everywhere, complaining to everybody.

I was lucky to meet one Nigerian there who had the same problem, and I was sharing my story and challenges with him, and he goes “listen o, there’s one guy here in London, but he’s always coming to Nigeria every other month, and he has decided to do something close to a Pro bono for Nigerians, because the thing is hitting Nigerian men badly.”

So, of course, I immediately collected the doctor’s number, and he told me when he would arrive in Nigeria, and I like the fact that I finally did what I had to do in Nigeria. I didn’t run away to America, even though I no get money o, I like that I was able to do it in a hospital in Nigeria, because the guy did come, and after I went to see him, he said “you need to go and have this precise checkup”, I think it’s called MRI, this was to be done around my manhood, so that we can ascertain what exactly is wrong.

The day I brought the report back to him, he said “you need to go in, I don’t like what I’m seeing”, and that’s how the next day, I was admitted into Reddington, and that same day I was admitted, I was operated on in Reddington.

Now, I understand why men are scared because of this, I had Stage 1 Prostate cancer, I was lucky because my pee and everything were mixing with my bladder, it had become cancerous, so there was a need to just stop it in it’s track, and that’s why the next day after the examination, I was admitted.

For Enquiries, Please Contact

Dr. Doris Udensi

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Charly Boy Foundation

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