CALGARY – Legendary professional wrestler Bret (Hitman) Hart says he’s 100 per cent recovered and back in the gym a year after surgery for prostate cancer.

Hart says it was a tough battle and he feared the worst, but he benefited from early detection.

The situation is not the same for his older brother, who also has prostate cancer.

Hart says his brother didn’t go for testing or take care of things early, and now he’s looking at maybe a year to live.

Hart, who is 59, has had serious health issues before — he suffered a stroke in 2002 that left him partially paralyzed, but he made a successful recovery.

He was born into a legendary wrestling family led by his father, Stu Hart, founder of Calgary’s Stampede Wrestling.

“You know, it’s so critical for me to stress … that it’s just a blood test,” Hart said as he urged men to get screened for prostate cancer.

“You gotta go in and get a blood test. If you’re a man over 40, you need to go in. You don’t want to be like my brother, Smith, who’s a guy that didn’t worry about it and it’s too late now.”

Hart said men have two choices.

“If you’ve got prostate cancer, if you don’t catch it early, you could die from it. And if you catch it early, you can live a pretty normal life.

“I would say I’m pretty close to normal.”

(CFFR)