Isaac Dweben/Cancer Black Care

Following the death of his elder brother, Isaac Dweben single-handedly founded Cancer Black Care to address the needs of Black people who are affected by cancer. I am from Ghana. My brother Richard died in Ghana of prostate cancer in 1992. I didn't even know he had cancer - he hid the whole thing from us. It was on the last day of his life that we found out he had prostate cancer. At that time, he was confined to a wheelchair.

He was pursuing treatment in Germany and I asked my sister why he was in a wheelchair. You see, it might be embarrassing, very devastating, for Richard, who used to be an ambassador, a very energetic man.

Richard wanted to hide it. He felt that cancer was demeaning. He was a very high-profile, very energetic person, and he felt that if people knew he had cancer, he would lose status. This is common among Black families. People living in Brent [in North London] will come to Hackney [in East London] for counselling because they don't want people in Brent to know.

My background is as an accountant. I read an article in October 1995 in Cancer Link Magazine stating that there is no Black and ethnic minority support group which has emerged to address the needs of members of this community affected by cancer. I said, why should this be? Cancer affects the general population, and my brother died from prostate cancer.