I WANT to start this week with a huge thank you to all those people (and there were quite a few of you) who took the trouble to contact me, either through email or social media, with messages of support following my public announcement that I had early stage prostate cancer.

One of my children said it was brave of me to ‘come out’. I think I know what she meant! 

And a few of you praised the fact that I was encouraging other men ‘of a certain age’ to get checked.

How ironic that a few days after I wrote that article The King revealed his cancer diagnosis. 

As a Deputy Lieutenant in Somerset, I wish His Majesty a full and speedy recovery.

But it reinforced the point I had made – had the King not had his original (non cancerous) prostate condition checked, this cancer would not have been found.

Cancer Research UK is clear that if we are to beat cancer, early detection and diagnosis is the ‘single most important and impactful objective we can have’.

Patients diagnosed early have the best chance of curative treatment and long-term survival.

Yet despite this, only 55 per cent of cancers are currently detected early in England. 

The NHS has to change that – as a country we are falling behind other nations across the globe. 

But we too have a role to play, by taking part in screening any programmes that are out there, and talking about our health.

On a completely different topic – I’m being taken advantage of! This time by my home insurance company.

When I was covering the terrible floods on the Somerset Levels ten years ago for the BBC I learned just how unscrupulous certain insurance companies could be.

People were being left with no cover, damage wasn’t being paid for because, according to insurance company X, they hadn’t read ‘page 3, paragraph 23’ of the small print. 

It truly was outrageous.

At that point I said to myself I’m going to go with a ‘the very best’ insurance provider for our home – even if it did cost more (and it certainly did!).

But last year the already sky-high premium went up by 25 per cent. And this year by another 25 per cent. How do they justify that?  I have never made a claim.

A lady at a call centre told me ‘world issues’ hadn’t helped.

But I’m struggling to understand how war in Ukraine or the Israel-Hamas conflict (tragic though they are) should impact insurance policies in Somerset.

So I’m forced to move away from the company I’m told is the best and hope that the one I have now doesn’t hide behind some small print if I ever have to claim.

In a previous column I asked you to share with me any moans you have. What gets your goat? What makes your hackles rise?

I may not be able to solve your problem but at least we can whinge together. And there is some comfort in group misery! So drop me an email.

If you wish to contact Clinton, you can email him at clinton.rogers@countygazette.co.uk