National Prostate Cancer Awareness Month – Marc’s Story

Curious why I’m standing there in that hospital gown?

My loving wife took that photo about thirty minutes before I underwent a robotically assisted laparoscopic radical prostatectomy at UT Southwestern’s William P. Clements Jr. University Hospital in Dallas earlier this month.? Tomorrow marks the beginning of National Prostate Cancer Awareness Month, and I’m sharing my story on LinkedIn to raise awareness about prostate cancer and to ask for your support for those affected by the disease.

Prostate cancer is the most common non-skin cancer diagnosed in men. It's also the second leading cause of cancer deaths in men, after lung cancer.? In the United States, about one in eight men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer at some point during their lifetimes.? Prostate cancer often has no early symptoms; however, the disease is often caught before it spreads because of effective screening options like Prostate Specific Antigen (PSA) tests.

Prostate cancer is more common in older men or those with other risk factors like smoking, being overweight, or not getting enough exercise.? You can see from the picture above that I am neither old nor out of shape, and I never smoked.? However, roughly one in three men with a family history will develop the disease.? This was likely my case; my dad was diagnosed with prostate cancer in his late sixties.

It's also estimated that black men are 50% more likely to develop prostate cancer in their lifetime and twice as likely to die from the disease than other men, including other men of color.? Choices about screening and treatment for early-stage prostate cancer are sometimes complicated and very personal, but like many diseases, progress is being made in both detection and treatment with excellent outcomes if considered proactively.

Over the next few weeks, I'm sharing my personal story with the hope of raising awareness and inspiring you to act.

I’d also like to ask you to support my ZERO Prostate Cancer fundraising page.?

ZERO Prostate Cancer is the leading national nonprofit with the mission to end prostate cancer and help all who are impacted by the disease.? ZERO advances research for new treatments and a cure, provides direct assistance to patients who desperately need it, and empowers advocacy, education, and life-saving early detection.? Please donate to my fundraising page HERE .

Please share my articles this month with your network to help reach more people and expand awareness.

Next week:? How a simple PSA test identified my prostate cancer

#ProstateCancer #ProstateCancerAwareness #ProstateCancerResearch #EndProstateCancer #ZEROProstateCancer