MUSICIAN Ben Curtis has urged middle aged men to get checked out for prostate cancer, but says it’s probably too late to save himself.

Thirteen months ago doctors said Ben had an aggressive form of the disease and he says the chances of him coming through it are "very slim".

But since being diagnosed, the 50-year-old has been on a mission to raise awareness and regained enough strength to write an album of blues music and raise £2k for charity.

The Flackwell Heath resident said: "What I want to do is encourage people to get checked, because it was too late for me.

"Men just push this stuff under the carpet but it can be a lifesaver if you get yourself checked out. Had I been checked earlier it would have been treatable.

"I’m on morphine and all sorts of other things all the time and have had more radiotherapy than perhaps any other person in the UK. This controls the pain but there’s an outside chance of it curing the cancer."

Ben used to run a private health firm called Trio Healthcare, based in Great Missenden, and fell ill shortly after selling the company.

He played in a band when he was younger and after being diagnosed in December 2011 decided to write some songs with his old playing partner Steve French.

The pair hired session musicians, including Steve Rodford from The Zombies, to record the tracks at the famous Rockfield Studios in Wales - where Oasis made ‘What’s the Story (Morning Glory)’.

Ben, who sings and plays harmonica, said: "Most people who are terminally ill slow down or stop because you don’t have the same energy levels, but I do my best to appear normal. I want to inspire people not to give up.

"The session players enjoyed Rockfield so much they thought we’ve got to get out and gig this stuff. Since that we’ve been looking at what we could do with the album and I contacted Prostate Cancer UK to see if we could get them some revenue from it."

The group call themselves New Groove and played the songs from the album ‘Quit Bitchin’ at a fundraising event in London earlier this month, bringing in £2,000 worth of donations for PCUK’s Sledgehammer Campaign.