For the longest time, I would confuse the words “prostate” and “prostrate.” I think I finally got it straight when I read Shakespeare’s “Julius Caesar,” and there’s a line about “being prostrate.” I still have to think about which one to use sometimes when I’m going for prostrate, but never the other way around... for whatever that’s worth.
Anyway, the last three days’ posts have been about fathers, so it only seemed fitting that when I was in the grocery store today and the clerk asked if I wanted to make a donation to fight prostate cancer, I said yes and keep my male-oriented streak going.
Like most of us, I have a horrible fear of getting the Big C and I’ve often darkly joked that the only cancer I don’t have to worry about getting is prostate cancer (and testicular cancer. That’s two!!). But that doesn’t mean I take it lightly. Prostate cancer is to men what breast cancer is to women, or so it seems to me. According to the Prostate Cancer Foundation, prostate cancer affects 1 in 6 men and a man who does not smoke is 35% more likely to be diagnosed with prostate cancer than a women is to be diagnosed with breast cancer. Statistically, that means I should know a lot more men who have it, but I only have one friend 60 or under that I know has been affected, whereas I seem to have had a lot more female friends under 60 have breast cancer...
Luckily, my friend has finished treatment and seems to be on the other side. The good news is that the cure rate for prostate cancer is nearly 100% if it’s caught in the early stages.
The Prostate Cancer Foundation has raised more than $530 million in the past 20 years for research and has contributed to more than 1,600 research projects at 200 institutions around the world, according to its website.
Prostate Cancer sounds so close to being a cancer that is totally beatable. Today, I want to do my part.
At the grocery store, my $10 went to the Safeway Foundation, which will funnel the money to a prostate cancer charity. Since I’m not sure what that will be, I picked PCF to recommend today.
June 17: Prostate Cancer Foundation
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