Lions great Sir Ian McGeechan’s cancer ‘all gone and under control’

“So, when you hear that, after having heard somebody say to you, ‘you have got cancer’, it’s quite special. The prostate cancer is all gone and under control, so delighted.”

Prostate cancer is the most common cancer in men, with figures from Prostate Cancer UK showing more than 63,000 men are diagnosed every year and 12,000 of those will die.

There have been growing calls for annual tests, with the UK National Screening Committee currently assessing whether a prostate cancer screening programme should be set up.

“It needs that support from government,” McGeechan said. “There has to be a screening programme because prostate cancer is recoverable.

“And it would be a great shame if people miss that opportunity to have a scan and not just be able to have it there rather than be asking, ‘can you, can’t you’?”

As a fly-half, Leeds-born McGeechan earned 32 Scotland caps – including nine as captain – and won the 1974 Lions series in South Africa before touring again with the side in New Zealand in 1977.

Progressing to coaching, he led Scotland to the Five Nations Grand Slam in 1990 and also oversaw series victories as Lions boss in both 1989 and 1997.

He added: “If you have got cancer in the family then it just makes sense to be able to offer that screening and just educate people and make them aware of what some of the symptoms are, because I didn’t feel ill, I felt fine.”