Attorney General and Tsawwassen resident Wally Oppal has been diagnosed with prostate cancer, but he says the treatment shouldn’t keep him away from his work for long.

Oppal said he is scheduled to have surgery March 20, and after the initial shock of the diagnosis he is confident about his recovery.

“I play basketball, I lift weights, I don’t smoke, I’m in fairly good health I thought, until they found this lump in a routine checkup,” Oppal said Thursday. “It’s very disconcerting. It’s a shock when you’re told you have cancer, but after you gather your emotional thoughts, you have to get your life together.”

Returning to the legislature after making an announcement in Vancouver about his condition, Oppal said he isn’t feeling any fatigue and doesn’t expect to be off work for long.

“I expect I’ll be a few days away, but I’m going to be working out of my Vancouver office,” the former B.C. Court of Appeal judge said. “I’m going to get a condo very close to it so they can bring me work.”

Oppal was joined at his Vancouver announcement by Premier Gordon Campbell and Tourism Minister Stan Hagen, who had a full recovery after surgery for prostate cancer. He urged older men to overcome their embarrassment and see their doctor for a checkup that includes a digital rectal examination.

Fifteen years follow up after studying 223 patients with localized prostate cancer showed that radioactive seed implants are a highly effective treatment in combination with conventional external beam radiation.Seed implants, also called brachytherapy, are small radioactive pellets about the size of a grain of rice. The pellets are implanted into the prostate; they deliver radiation to the prostate cancer from the inside.

Most good-prognosis patients who choose seed implants do not receive other treatments. Patients with more aggressive tumors may get seed implants plus external beam radiation.

Three out of four patients in the study remained disease free at least 15 years after treatment ended. It is not clear from the study if the patients would have fared equally well with either the seed implants or external-bean radiation therapy alone, however they are confident the combined therapy is very effective in treating prostate cancer.