For our March 10, 2020 Support Group Meeting, we were pleased to welcome our Guest Speaker, Lisa A. Porter, Ph.D. Professor, University of Windsor and Director, WE-SPARK Health Institute.

Dr. Porter received her Ph.D. in medical sciences from McMaster University, followed by a post-doctoral fellowship in chemistry & biochemistry from the University of California San Diego.  She joined the University of Windsor in 2004 as a Canadian Institutes of Health Research New Investigator.
Her research program covers many aspects of understanding how cancer begins and progresses to an aggressive, drug resistant state. The goal is finding new more effective therapies for patients. 
Dr. Porter described their research, focused on finding more effective ways to detect the progression of prostate cancer and treat aggressive, drug resistant stages of the disease.

Dr. Porter was also a founding director of the Windsor Cancer Research Group and this more recently has grown into a bone fide Health Research Institute, WE-SPARK Health Institute, to serve the needs of Windsor-Essex.  

She included a few slides to introduce the goals of WE-SPARK Health Institute and how this will benefit our Windsor-Essex community.

For our February 11th Support Group Meeting, we were pleased to welcome our Guest Speaker, MARC MARIER, who recounted his experience with prostate cancer as a young man at 40 years of age. We heard how Marc traveled to Houston, Texas for treatment.

With over thirty three years of experience Marc is the second generation operator of Marcels Collision. Beyond his vast knowledge of the collision repair process, Marc has a lot knowledge of the insurance industry and their the claims process.

He’ll help take the pain out of the repair process and help you get your car fixed as quickly and efficiently as possible.

Our meeting was also open for others, both men and women, to tell their story, including some of our members.

For our October Support Group Meeting, we welcomed back our Guest Speaker, Andrea Simone, who presented her findings regarding emotional needs of men diagnosed with prostate cancer.

Andrea received her BScN from the University of Windsor and has been employed full-time since 1991 at Henry Ford Hospital, in Detroit, MI. Her experience has been in the inpatient and outpatient care setting treating urology patients for twenty-four years specializing in post operative care for robotic radical prostatectomy patients. Most recently, in 2017, she accepted a position in the Quality and Safety department at Henry Ford Hospital, specifically specializing in Sepsis outcomes and education as it relates to Core Measure government data.

In 2006, she initiated and implemented the first educational group classes for couples recovering from prostate cancer treatments for the Vattikuti Urology Institute (VUI). The focus had been on continence and penile rehabilitation and assisting men and couples in attaining a full recovery after treatment for prostate cancer, therefore, enhancing quality of life. This teaching has been expanded to other communities including Windsor and various organizations both voluntarily and frequently as a guest speaker.

She enjoys being part of a team that provides comprehensive patient care and attention to psychosocial-emotional needs of patients and their significant others. Andrea has been a guest speaker for TIMM medical, Ambulatory Nurse Council, St. Clair College, Windsor-Essex County Prostate Cancer Support Group, and the Urology Nurses of Canada (UNC) in Ottawa (2014).

For our June 2019 Support Group Meeting, we welcomed our guest speaker Tim Brady, Pharmacist and Owner of Brady’s Drug Stores in Essex and Belle River.

Tim was elected to the Ontario Pharmacists Association (“OPA”) Board of Directors as a District Representative in June 2016.  He has been a member of the OPA Insurance Committee since 2013 and has been a Board member with the Essex County Pharmacists Association since 2005 (he served as President from 2010-12).

A graduate of Ferris State University with a BS in Pharmacy, Tim is the pharmacist owner of two independent pharmacies in Essex County. Prior to opening his own pharmacy, Tim worked locally as a Pharmacist for a number of years.

Tim was the lead pharmacist in the “We Can Quit” program for smoking cessation, and a member of the 2011 Rotary District 6400 Vocational Training Team to East Timor.

His talk covered topics such as “Medical Cannabis as an Aid in Prostate Cancer” and the latest medicines related to Prostate Cancer, Incontinence, and Erectile Dysfunction.  Our thanks to Tim Brady for this down to earth talk on Sex, Life, and Prostate Cancer.

For our May 2019 Support Group Meeting, we welcomed our Guest Speaker Diane Mulcaster, RN BScN MHS, Training Facilitator for Windsor-Essex Compassion Care Community. Diane is a Registered Nurse with over 40 years of experience working in both hospital and community settings. She completed a Master’s Degree in Health Studies at the age of 59 and believes in lifelong learning and growth. Currently Diane works with the Windsor Essex Compassion Care Community and conducts various types of group workshops.
Diane’s topic was “Strategy to a Happy Life”. Her talk touched on coping with anxiety, loneliness, and depression as it relates to Prostate Cancer patients.

After our February 2019 Support Group Meeting was cancelled due to poor weather conditions, we were very grateful that Stacey Dusik  agreed to join us as the speaker for our March 2019 Support Group Meeting. Stacey is the Operations Manager of the OR and PACU at Windsor Regional Hospital, Met Campus.  Stacey has been in a management role at Met campus for the last 4 years.  She was involved in the development of the DaVinci robotic surgery program at WRH Met campus.  She was able to work with the surgeons, nurses, Cancer Centre, Men’s Health Program and Intuitive (robotics company) to develop a robotic surgery program for the community of Windsor/Essex County.  Previous to her roles at WRH, Stacey was at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit, Michigan.  Her role was that of a first assistant and assisted Urologists in over 3,000 robotic surgery cases.  Recently, Stacey was able to successfully complete her Master of Nursing Leadership at the University of Windsor.