Elon Musk’s dad Errol has revealed his prostate cancer diagnosis for the first time as he backed the Mail’s campaign for a national screening programme.

The retired engineer, 79, had his whole prostate removed after the disease was found by chance following a routine blood test for an unrelated condition.

Errol, father of the billionaire spaceship and social media tycoon, is now urging men to get themselves tested to boost their survival chances.

Prostate cancer is the most diagnosed form of cancer in England, with 55,033 cases identified in 2023, the latest figures show.

Catching it early improves the odds of successfully treating the disease, which kills around 10,200 men nationwide each year.

The Daily Mail is campaigning for a national prostate cancer screening programme, initially targeted at high risk men.

This includes those who are black, have a family history of the disease or particular genetic mutations.

Errol, from Cape Town, South Africa, was born to an English mother and spent a couple of years growing up in Bristol and Gloucester.

Speaking on a visit back to England today, he told the Mail: ‘I feel lucky to be alive and feel fortunate my tumour was caught early, while it was still treatable – but there are so many men who are not so fortunate.

‘With one in eight men set to develop prostate cancer in their lifetime, it’s vital we catch it early and get them the urgent treatment they need.

‘That’s why I support the Daily Mail’s campaign for national prostate cancer screening programme.

‘I urge all Governments, including the UK Government, to get testing, so we can ensure men get diagnosed faster and catch the cancer before it develops.’

Errol had no prostate cancer symptoms but was diagnosed with adenocarcinoma of the prostate in February last year after a routine test identified an elevated level of prostate specific antigen in his blood – a possible indicator of the disease.

He had returned to hospital for a regular checkup following open-heart surgery years earlier.

Errol revealed his diagnosis in a video interview with his friend Avi Lasarow, shared exclusively with the Mail.

He said: ‘A few years ago, I went for a flying medical and the doctor rushed me to a cardiologist, and I had an open-heart operation as a result of that.

‘I keep going back for checkups and so on. I’m all right, I had a valve repair, replacement, in my heart.

‘But when I went for my checkup at the beginning of last year, they said to me, with the many blood tests they do, that I had a raised PSA. Not particularly raised, but it was raised.

‘I was advised to go to a urologist and have that looked at. I went to urologist and he asked me to come back, which brings me to a rather sort of comical aspect

‘I always thought when you go into see a doctor and he’s going to tell you that you have cancer, that he first tells you to sit down, and maybe offers you a cup of tea and asks you, if you’re comfortable, if you’d like a cushion?

‘They don’t do that. You’ve barely sat down on a hard bench chair, and they’ve said: “You have cancer!”

‘And so, after seeing the urologist, he said to me I have cancer of the prostate.

‘I said: “Well, what now, you know?” He said: “Well, we can remove the prostate, and then we have to see what’s left.”

‘So, I agreed and I went for this operation and they removed my prostate and also all the lymph nodes on the right side, they teared that all out as well.

‘The biopsy showed that the prostate was carcinomas. It wasn’t a question of leaving it. It was a case of stopping the cells from spreading.

‘So, it was definitely the right decision in terms of maintaining my life.

‘They didn’t suggest to me that there was an alternative. They said you must have this removed.

‘And as I’ve been going back, I don’t seem to have a problem at this point.’

Errol cancelled a planned overseas trip and had the operation in July 2024, around the time Donald Trump suffered a grazed ear in an assassination attempt and his son Elon first endorsed him as president.

He broke the news to Elon via email, who is said to have responded ‘Sorry, dad – whatever it costs, I’ll pay.’

Errol, who is making a good recovery, added: ‘For the first six weeks, I actually felt pretty awful. You feel no strength. Your body feels weak, your legs weak, you just feel old, and you don’t feel very good.

‘The doctor said to me it would take 12 months after the operation before I felt all right.

‘But I started to feel ok after three months I’m much better now, and I’m looking forward to getting to the 12 months.’

Errol plans to launch Musk Health Systems, a DNA testing service that focuses on longevity and screening for genetic predisposition to illnesses, such as prostate cancer and breast cancer.

DNA testing can help identify individuals at increased risk of prostate cancer, guide treatment decisions, and provide information to relatives who may also be at risk.

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Watch the full Errol interview with Avi at https://muskhealthsystem.com 

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The NHS already offers national screening programmes for breast, bowel and cervical cancers – but not for prostate cancer.

The UK National Screening Committee, which advises the government on which screening programmes to offer, is currently considering recent developments around prostate cancer diagnosis and is due to report its findings later this year.

Analysis by the charity Prostate Cancer Research suggests such a scheme would lead to an extra 775 cases being diagnosed early each year among high-risk men aged 45 to 69.

This includes those who are black, have a family history of the disease, or have a particular genetic mutation.

It would also spare almost 300 men a year from a stage 4 diagnosis, when the tumour has spread around the body, making it incurable.

Wes Streeting has declared his support for a national prostate cancer screening programme in a major boost for the Mail’s campaign.

The health secretary told MPs in April that he would like to see the NHS proactively offer men tests for the disease in a move that could prevent thousands of needless deaths.

He said he is ‘particularly sympathetic’ to the argument that this should initially be targeted at high-risk men.