HE'S done it again. Peter Craven who thanked God and a dramatic change in his diet for an astonishing recovery from lung cancer has now beaten prostate problems with the same winning formula.

And he will tell other men how they can help tackle or prevent their own "men's plumbing problems" when he gives a free talk in York on Wednesday evening about his experiences.

The Evening Press reported in June how the 67-year-old former engineer, from Dunnington, near York, was given only 12-18 months to live after being diagnosed as suffering from the asbestos-related lung disease mesothelioma in the late 1990s.

But after medical treatment and also a major diet change - increasing his consumption of foods such as tomatoes and radishes which contain powerful antioxidants - he went into total remission.

Now Mr Craven has told how he has also made a good recovery from a completely unrelated prostate condition.

He said the problem had come to a head one night about a year ago, when he had had to go to the toilet about five times in one night.

He went to his doctor, and tests showed he was suffering from a benign enlarged prostate. He said he was offered drugs to counteract the condition but was warned there might be side-effects.

He said he asked if he could instead take a number of herbal remedies and make more changes to his diet, which he had discovered through his own researches might help beat the condition.

He decided to drastically reduce the amount of animal fats in his diet, for example by switching from full cream milk to semi-skimmed and cutting the fat off meat and the skin off chicken.

He took Saw Palmetto from a berry grown in America, and also flax seed oil, and ate foods rich in zinc. He also prayed and said his faith was crucial, although he firmly believed in the saying "God helps those who help themselves."

Now he says his condition is 90 per cent better, and he can once again get through the night without having to use the loo.

But he says he wants to help other people change their diet when they are younger so as to avoid getting the same problem when they are older.

He likens such changes to a minor alteration in the early course of the Titanic, which he says would have taken it a long way from the iceberg.

* Peter Craven's talk on "Men's Plumbing Problems" takes place at York's Rock Church in Priory Street, off Micklegate, at 8pm next Wednesday.

Updated: 08:30 Monday, November 19, 2001