Mumbai, Apr 24 (PTI) Prostate cancer scare five years ago compelled noted playback singer Shaan to go for a check-up, which then confirmed that it was just a “false alarm”.

Sharing his experience at the launch of MenCan, an initiative of Urologic Oncology Disease Management Group (URO DMG), a unit of the Tata Memorial Centre (TMC) here, he also urged people to get medical tests done, saying health was of utmost importance.

“I had a bit of a prostate scare in 2020, which I want to share with you. It almost led to a point where I was told by a few doctors that this could be prostate cancer, but it turned out it was a false alarm,” he told reporters.

“Since then, I’ve been very, very careful in terms of getting my regular tests done. And that is something that I’ve done on a personal level, which again, when I share with my friends, it’s very ticklish, it’s very funny. Therefore, I realised that it’s something that we need to, you know, create more awareness,” he said.

The voice behind countless hits such as “Tanha Dil”, “Musu Musu Hasi”, “Jab Se Tere Naina” and “Chand Sifarish”, is now going to be the brand ambassador for MenCan initiative.

MenCan is a non-profit and non-commercial initiative that will address the challenges of prostate, penile and testicular cancers in men.

Shaan said there are certain taboos, stigmas and fear attached to the word cancer.

“The word itself, people don’t want to use it, like it’s almost like a scary word,” he said.

According to him, he quickly agreed to become the brand ambassador for MenCan because there is a taboo in the society about openly talking about prostate, testicular or penile cancer.

“You don’t want to be forthcoming about it. Get yourself checked, get yourself administered because it feels kind of violated, scary. But we have to get over that because at the end of the day, your health, especially a man’s health, is important. If a man is not in his best health, it’s going to affect the family,” he said.

“We need to talk about it. We need to bring awareness. And so I’m very happy that though I’m completely a lay person in the medical and scientific world, if I can be of any use, if I’ve been chosen to do this, I’ll do my utmost to support MenCan,” he added. PTI SM NP