A dad who twice conquered cancer within a year has celebrated the “miracle” of innovative non-invasive ultrasound treatment after enduring the agonising effects of chemotherapy. In August 2022 Stuart Emerson, a 60-year-old dad of four and finance specialist, was diagnosed with tonsil cancer when he felt a persistent soreness akin to having a “peanut stuck in (his) throat”.
November 2023 brought another challenge: prostate cancer, with the daunting prospect of a prostatectomy that could result in severe side effects. Determined to find an alternative, Stuart discovered the new high-intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) unit at the Royal United Hospitals Bath NHS Foundation Trust (RUH), one of only a handful of full-time NHS HIFU units in the UK, which had opened its doors in December 2023.
Undergoing HIFU treatment at RUH Bath in September 2024, Stuart, who lives near Gloucester, Gloucestershire, saw about 60% of his prostate eradicated without suffering through the invasive impacts typical to surgery or chemotherapy.
Stuart has miraculously beaten the odds, surviving two cancer diagnoses in just 15 months. He is now advocating for early detection and HIFU treatment, with the hope of saving others from invasive and debilitating cancer treatments and lengthy recovery times.
“I just want to have 2025 without cancer, without doctors,” Stuart said. “I’m at a stage in my life with my four children, they’re now getting married, they’re buying houses, two of the four are talking about having children, and I don’t want to miss that. I want to be part of our children’s lives and their children’s lives… and I think when you’re in your 50s and 60s, that’s too young to die – there’s so much to live for.”
He added: “HIFU isn’t suitable for everyone, but I was excited about it, the technology and the medical advances are amazing. I was just relieved that we didn’t have to use knives and there were no side effects for me. It’s cutting-edge and I guess I’d say it’s a miracle treatment, it was fate.”
Stuart said he is a “nutter for outdoor activity” – he loves walking, running and hiking and describes it as “medicine”. When he started experiencing a sore throat in the summer of 2022, he said he “thought nothing of it” but booked a GP appointment and was prescribed tablets.
His symptoms, which felt like “a crisp or peanut stuck in (his) throat”, persisted over the following two weeks, so Stuart was referred to hospital to have his tonsils removed. Further testing then revealed Stuart had tonsil cancer in August 2022, caused by a type of human papillomavirus (HPV), the name of a common group of viruses.
His treatment involved two rounds of chemotherapy, starting in September 2022, followed by six weeks of radiotherapy. Stuart said his wife and children, Zac, 24, Ellie, 24, Max, 27 and Lloyd, 31, were incredibly supportive and helped with his “100 appointments” to Cheltenham General Hospital, but he described the treatment as “horrendous”.
“I lost loads of weight, I wasn’t eating properly, I felt sick, I had ulcers in my mouth – it was hell,” Stuart said. “There’s a photo of me ringing the bell at the end and I look like a skeleton.”
Stuart completed his treatment in November 2022 and was declared cancer-free in early 2023. After recovering, he and his wife Saskia went on holiday to Cyprus in June of that year and Stuart ran 100k in October to raise awareness and funds for the charity Breast Cancer Now.
Prior to his tonsil cancer diagnosis, Stuart had been “in the system” due to his earlier PSA tests, which measure the amount of prostate-specific antigen (PSA) in the blood. After three biopsies, he was then told that he had prostate cancer in November 2023.
“The second time around, I was shocked because I’d convinced myself that there was nothing wrong because PSA levels go up anyway as you get older,” he said. “It hit me harder than the tonsil cancer because I didn’t get the words, ‘We’re going for cure’.
“My options were to just keep an eye on it and hope that it doesn’t get any worse or have a full removal, but you probably won’t have a sex life and you’ll probably have incontinence issues. I was thinking, ‘Oh my God, what do I do?’”
Fearing that he “might not be around” to see his children get married, Stuart said he went into “massive fight mode”. He discovered the new HIFU unit at RUH Bath and managed to secure a referral there with the help of medical professionals.
The equipment, funded by Prost8 and the UK Focused Ultrasound Foundation, integrates advanced image-guided capabilities and ultrasound energy to precisely target the prostate without any incisions or radiation, therefore sparing nearby healthy structures. Stuart said he was informed by RUH Consultant Urologist Miss Lucy Simmons that he was the “perfect” candidate for HIFU, as the cancer had not spread, and he underwent the “amazing” treatment in September 2024.
Throughout the UK, there are only four full-time NHS HIFU units, although there will hopefully be two more by the second quarter of 2025, and about 10 HIFU units in the private sector. By December 2024, Stuart was told his PSA levels had dropped by more than 70% and they were “normal”and on the night he received this news, he said he “got rather drunk”.
“Basically, they zapped the prostate so that I’ve only got 40% left, but they’ve done it without cutting me,” Stuart said. “The after effects of HIFU were nothing like the treatment before, and I would say my life got back to normal probably six months before I thought it would.”
Stuart is now working alongside Prost8 to champion for the expansion of HIFU units across the UK, reducing the need for invasive treatments which often result in life-altering side effects, such as incontinence and erectile dysfunction. He has signed up for the 53k (33 miles) ultramarathon challenge on June 21 2025, from Cirencester to Wotton-under-Edge, to raise funds for Prost8 and he hopes his story helps raise awareness and save lives.
Speaking about his advice, he said: “Men need to wise up and get checked. I think men are a problem when it comes to dealing with this sort of thing, but if you can’t do it for yourself, do it for the people who love you.”
To donate to Stuart’s JustGiving page visit justgiving.com/page/stuart-emerson-6.
