Prostate Cancer.
Despite its wide-reaching impact, it’s often both misunderstood and misrepresented.
According to Prostate Cancer Canada (PCC), in 2019 alone, over 20,000 cases of prostate cancer will be diagnosed in Canada.
Robin Speer, spokesperson for PCC adds that 4,000 of those men will lose their lives to the disease. In case you don’t feel like doing the math — that’s almost 11 lives lost every single day. Yet, if detected early, nearly 99 per cent of prostate cancer is treatable.
“Prostate cancer is one of the most commonly diagnosed cancers amongst Canadian men. One in seven Canadian men and their families will face that prostate cancer diagnosis in their lifetime. That’s our dads, our brothers, our sons, our friends,” explains Speer. “Men traditionally just don’t like to talk about their health. They don’t like to get tested, they don’t like to get a checkup done. But a routine checkup — going in, and making it a part of your regular doctor’s visits — will ensure that early diagnosis allows treatment to take place.”
#PlaidForDad, developed by PCC, is a campaign that brings some fun to the serious conversation, by encouraging anyone and everyone to wear plaid on the Friday before Father’s Day. The campaign is about raising awareness, encouraging men to get tested, and to raise funds for research.
“One individual from a workplace, whether it’s a business or even an individual farm, can visit plaidfordad.ca, register your workplace, your team, your organization. It takes about two minutes to do so. You can donate, contribute, raise money there. A lot of the agriculture sector is taking part this year, through competitions, fashion shows, raffles, and more,” he notes, adding, “you don’t have to work in a big workplace to take part and register, many individual farms have already signed up this year.”
World-leading research is taking place right here in Canada, so raising funds and awareness is an imperative step in order to improve the odds.
“Have fun with it, have a BBQ, and raise money on plaidfordad.ca. Share your photos with the hashtag #PlaidForDad on June 14th. Let’s talk about it. Men need to talk about this. They need to talk to each other about their health.”
And hey, who doesn’t love wearing plaid anyway?
To learn more about the campaign, and some of the things you can do, listen to the conversation between Shaun Haney and Robin Speer, below:
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