Phil Masley, now living in Orlando, FL, since his treatment in 2005 has been active creating newsletters and press releases for 13 support groups in Central Florida. Prior to his volunteer work to help raise prostate cancer awareness, Phil was in advertising and sales promotion at GM and involved in PR for four charities in Indianapolis with NASCAR legend Dale Earnhardt.

Phil’s two-page newsletter The Florida Prostate Cancer Connection includes items like these below.

Not only during PC Awareness Month
each September, but all year long

BY PHIL MASLEY

Although prostate cancer does not receive the attention it deserves, here is what the President of the United States has to say, along with information on a growing number of events designed to increase awareness and raise funds for research.

Drop Everything and fight cancers below the waist! is the slogan of Underwear Affair, a fundraising and awareness event initiated in Canada and now reaching Los Angeles and beyond.

People hit the streets of Vancouver, Calgary, Montreal, Toronto and Los Angeles dressed in everything from briefs and boy-shorts to t-shirts and tracksuits to help fund life-saving research for cancers like prostate, colorectal, cervical, ovarian, and others that occur below the waist.

Runners and walkers of all ages and athletic abilities join in dressed for hilarious fun. After the races, the Underwear Affair party features dancing and an outrageous costume contest.

For video of last year’s event in Vancouver …

African American men continue to have the highest rates of prostate cancer on the planet and the greatest risk of dying of the disease. An award-winning documentary entitled The Silent Killer: Prostate Cancer, now available on DVD, shows African American men sharing support and info about screening, life-saving choices, and quality of life.
Watch a 1 minute clip:

Discovery & Challenge: The State of Prostate Cancer Research
A Roundtable Discussion with Leading U.S. Experts

Alvin Chin, Prostate Cancer Survivor & Advocate, Virginia Prostate Coalition, joins  oncologists Howard Scher MD, Donald S. Coffey, PhD,  Peter S. Nelson, MD and representatives from research and the Pharma industry  for a round table discussion April 23.

You can make your voice heard by joining the conference by phone and emailing questions during the Q&A period.

Hosted by the Prostate Cancer Foundation, this round table discussion will feature commentary from eight U.S. experts in the field of prostate cancer research and treatment. The program will focus on the following areas:

* The current prevalence of prostate cancer
* Reaching beyond the PSA screening debate
* Promising scientific breakthroughs
* Challenges ahead for research and discovery
* Funding for continued research
* Models for furthering progress

WHERE:
The National Press Club – First Amendment Lounge
529 14th Street NW, Washington D.C.

and via telephone access

Jenny Potter in The North Bay Nugget, Ontario, Canada, reports “Another obstacle is out of the way for men at risk of developing prostate cancer.” Unfortunately, this is not quite yet the case. As Potter says:

The Ontario government recently announced it will cover the cost of the prostate-specific antigen tests when performed at laboratories.

Currently, publicly funded tests are only available in hospitals, but picking up the tab for those performed in laboratories will make it more convenient for rural patients to be tested.

Trouble is, as Potter’s report goes on to explain:

Men must meet a list of criteria in order to avoid paying $30 for the test at a local laboratory.

Patients showing symptoms of prostate cancer, who have received a diagnosis or who are directly related to someone with the disease qualify to be tested for free.

Hundreds of men hit the ground running today in Charlottesville, VA to help find a cure for prostate cancer. And according to local NBC-29 news station, some of those men are much healthier for participating.

Charles "Chuck" Maack

BY CHARLES (CHUCK) MAACK – Prostate Cancer Advocate

In opening: The capability to have an erection does not define what constitutes the title “Man.”

I’ve become exasperated reading of men claiming they are less a man because they are unable to get an erection or have lost libido/potency. “I’m less a man,” “I’m a eunuch,” “I’m a girly-man.”

Where in God’s name have such ridiculous thoughts come from? This, in my mind, is the perfect example of some men’s brains being enclosed within their penis rather than in their head.

I can agree that loss of capability for erection plus loss of libido are blows that strike at key capabilities associated with being a male.

But I am absolutely no less a man than I was through all the decades of my life before discovery of the prostate cancer made it necessary for me to take medical treatments that resulted in my loss of libido/potency/erection.