My cancer story

My cancer story begins like all cancer stories, getting sucker-punched while not looking. Before my diagnosis, I knew little about cancer and I knew nothing about the prostate. Now I know all kinds of “fun facts.”

One in six deaths are caused by cancer.
Cancer takes the lives of 10,000,000 people each year. Say that out loud. Ten-million people each year.

Prostate cancer is the number 2 cancer killer of men and number 3 overall. If a man between the ages of 40 and 60 is diagnosed with prostate cancer and deals with it before it has colonized new locations, the chance of being alive in five years is nearly 100%. Localized prostate cancer is like a stray cat hanging around your house’s back door. Remove it, or at the very least, monitor it. Whatever you do, don’t ignore it. If ignored, that cat can grow into a ferocious lion that will eat a man as metastatic prostate cancer.

If prostate cancer colonizes new locations in the body, there is a 66% chance that man will be dead within five years.

I am a lucky man. Sadly, there are tens of thousands whose luck runs out. Luck is a loser’s strategy. Cancer is many things – a violator, reaper, trickster, but it is also a teacher. I want to take the teeth out of prostate cancer, but I can’t do it without you. Please listen to my story. It just might save your life, or the life of a loved one.