Like most men his age, Paul Witheridge had put his nightly visits to the bathroom down to "just getting older", he had no idea he could have prostate cancer.

But when the 54-year-old tailor, who lives in Great Barr, Birmingham, went to his GP for a check-up last November, his blood test results revealed his level of PSA - prostate-specific antigen - were six times the norm of 3.0.

When scans at BUPA's Parkway Hospital in Soli-hull revealed the cancer had begun to spread, it limited his treatment options as surgery would have been tricky.

Instead of opting for radiotherapy Mr With-eridge agreed to become the first man outside London to have the pioneering High Intensity Focused Ultrasound (HIFU) treatment.

He said: "I hadn't had a PSA test before, but I was still rather shocked when the results showed my level was 18.5, compared to a 'normal' rate of 3.0.

"I had been getting up four or five times in the night to use the toilet, but I just thought that was down to me just getting older, there were no signs that anything was wrong.

"So it was really through luck, more than judgment, that the cancer was diagnosed at all.

"My consultant, Manu Nair told me it was 50:50 as to whether it was cancer or an enlarged prostate, so I was sent for a biopsy at Parkway in January."

When the biopsy confirmed it was cancer, Mr Witheridge had to consider whether he would have radiotherapy, surgery or HIFU.

"That was a massive blow. Cancer is one of those things that people always know someone who's got it or had it but never think it can happen to them. So to discover you've got it is actually quite frightening," he said.

"HIFU sounded like the best option because it focuses on the cancer rather than treat it in a random manner."

On May 27 he was underwent a three hour operation, where a probe is inserted into the bottom which pinpoints the ultra-sound energy to melt away cancer cells around the prostate.

Three weeks later Mr Witheridge was back at work at Burton's, in Birmingham.

He said: "Since then I rarely need to get up to during the night and my last blood test revealed my PSA levels were undetectable, which is amazing considering how high they were.

"I was really worried about it when I first went to see Mr Nair, but it does work, so I hope other patients can benefit from this now."