Hello All

Upcoming Hybrid-Zoom meeting Tuesday 14 November 2023

At our October Meeting, Dr. Ronald Sorensen’s presentation on genetics and prostate cancer was excellent and well received.
Our special thank-you to Dr. Sorensen, one of our local respected Urologists who was instrumental in establishing our Support Group years ago and continues to be very supportive.  At our November Meeting – Dr. Sorensen will be presenting again; the topic to be confirmed.

We would hope you can join us in person on Tuesday, November 14th @ 7:00 p.m. at Hospice, 6038 Empress St., Windsor, ON. If you’re unable to attend, then please join us on Zoom at this link:

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/6953623178

Upcoming Meetings

Tuesday 5 December Christmas Season Social – Rather than the regularly scheduled meeting on Tuesday 12 December, we will have our Christmas Season get together at Legion 594 (Howard) on Tuesday 5 December, which is coincident with that Legion’s bi-weekly Spaghetti Dinner. This has proven to be very successful the past few years. As with previous years, please bring potluck desserts.
Winter 2024 Meetings – The following summarizes some of the presentation ideas for the winter 2024 meetings:
CMHA – Sonia McMahon-Comartin has agreed to give a presentation in the Winter of 2024, currently penciled in for the Tuesday 13 February meeting. Sonia is the Mental Health Educator for the Windsor Chapter of the Canadian Mental Health Association (CMHA);
WRH Foundation – Ashley Weeres, who is the Manager of Philanthropy for the WRH Foundation agreed to give a presentation during one of our winter sessions;
National Group – Garry plans to share a briefing regarding the National Group that focuses on providing feedback on the many services that Prostate Cancer Foundation Canada (PCFC) offers; and
Medical Professionals – We will continue to engage Dr. Sorensen and other medical professionals for upcoming winter program presentations. The following previously indicated interest:
Dr. Jonathan Peng – WRH Radiation Oncologist, and
Dr. Tom Deklaj, Urologist

OUTREACH
The following summarizes some of the outreach activities that your Steering Committee has been and will be engaged in:

Windsor Regional Hospital (WRH) Foundation – On Tuesday 24 October Garry met with Ashley Weeres who is the Manager of Philanthropy for the WRH Foundation. Ashley detailed an upcoming fundraising campaign to acquire a second DaVinci Machine. She requested a volunteer from our group who has undergone the DaVinci procedure to share their story as part of this campaign. If you are interested in participating, please let us know.

Prostate Cancer Foundation Canada (PCFC) – On Saturday 28 October, the National group (PCFC) held a conference for all support group leaders across the country. Garry chaired a break-out session as part of this conference to provide feedback on the many services that PCFC provides. This was a well attended and successful conference.

Windsor Spitfires – We manned our Awareness Booth at the Spitfires Game on Saturday 28 October where we were able to distribute close to a hundred “Get Checked” flyers.
WE SPARK HEALTH Institute – Garry and Jim were invited by Dr. Lisa Porter (University of Windsor) to attend the WE-SPARK Health Research Conference at Caesars Windsor on Saturday 4 November. This conference profiled many research topics, many of which had direct application to prostate cancer; it also gave us an opportunity to network with the medical research community.
Communication/Brochures to Local Urologists – We continue to try and deliver posters, brochures, and other awareness documents to local urologists. The next time you have an appointment with your Urologist, please ask if they are interested in a poster and brochures in their waiting rooms.
UNIFOR – Garry continues to engage Dave Cassidy (UNIFOR) to discuss strategies for approaching local companies to brief. Garry will be briefing UNIFOR Local 200 and Local 1973 on Thursday 9 November.
City of Windsor – As a follow-on to the “Light up in Blue” campaign, the City of Windsor requested that we give a presentation which may happen in spring 2024.
Organizations to Approach – We are keenly interested in approaching companies (e.g. Stellantis, Ford, etc.) and other organizations to provide community awareness briefings. If you have any ideas, please let us know.

Windsor Cancer Centre Foundation Grow-On Campaign

Garry, Jim F., and Murray attended the Grow-On campaign kick-off on Thursday 26 October. Grow On Windsor is a local fundraising campaign created by the Windsor Cancer Centre Foundation in 2015. The campaign takes place every November in support of cancer awareness, research and treatment for men living in our region. To date, Grow On Windsor has raised more than $1 million and, most importantly, every dollar raised in this region stays local. We have been proud supporters of Grow On Windsor since its inception. We hope you’ll support our team this month.

You can join our fundraising team, or make your donation, through the following link:

https://www.canadahelps.org/s/6jPGpK

Prostate Cancer Foundation Canada

News from PCFC can be found at this link:

Your October 2023 Prostate Cancer Support Monthly Debrief

Prostate Cancer Support Windsor/Essex Baseball Caps and Shirts

Shirts and Baseball Caps, with our embroidered logo, are available for sale. Special thanks to Dr. Sorensen who has managed to sell over 100 of our baseball caps.  In addition to our Awareness Activities at events, selling our baseball caps is proving to be a great way to “advertise” our existence.  We would welcome any ideas on opportunities to sell our baseball caps.

Garry

Garry W. Loeper, CD, MScEng, PCIP, PMP, PEng

Hello All

Upcoming Hybrid-Zoom meeting Tuesday 10 October 2023

Dr. Ronald Sorensen will be briefing our group; he is one of our local respected Urologists who was instrumental in establishing our Support Group.  He plans to talk about genetics as a risk factor for Prostate Cancer.  This should prove to be an interesting presentation by an enthusiastic medical professional who is passionate about the success of our group.

We would hope you can join us in person on Tuesday, October 10th @ 7:00 p.m. at Hospice, 6038 Empress St., Windsor, ON. If you’re unable to attend, then please join us on Zoom at this link:

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/6953623178

The Prostate Cancer Patient Empowerment Program (PC-PEP)

During our previous meeting on Tuesday 12 September, we were fortunate to have a special presentation on the “Prostate Cancer Patient Empowerment Program”.  PC-PEP is a free comprehensive daily home-based 6-month Patient Empowerment Program offered by Dr. Rob Rutledge, MD, Radiation Oncologist and Dr. Gabriela Ilie, PhD, a Psychology Professor and Scientist at Dalhousie University. If you missed the presentation, you can access the recorded version at this YouTube link:

PC PEP What you need to know and do after a Prostate Cancer Diagnosis – YouTube

We encourage our members to learn more about PC-PEP at this link:

pcpep.org – Patient Education and Empowerment Programs for Prostate Cancer Patients

Outreach Events

On Friday 29 September, we manned an awareness booth at the VistaPrint Health and Wellness Fair; this was well received and we were able to get our message, out to over 200 folks, of the benefits of early detection.  We look forward to other opportunities this fall such as:

·       Windsor Cancer Centre Foundation Grow-On Campaign; and

·       Windsor Spitfire Hockey Game

If you are interested in volunteering for any of these, please let us know.  If you are aware of other community awareness opportunities, please also let us know.

Windsor Cancer Centre Foundation Grow-On Campaign

Grow On Windsor is a local fundraising campaign created by the Windsor Cancer Centre Foundation in 2015. The campaign takes place every November in support of cancer awareness, research and treatment for men living in our region. To date, Grow On Windsor has raised more than $1 million and, most importantly, every dollar raised in this region stays local. We have been proud supporters of Grow On Windsor since its inception. We hope you’ll join our team this coming November.

Team Up For Grow On Windsor – YouTube

City of Windsor “Light up in Blue” – 8 to 15 September 2023

As part of Prostate Cancer Awareness Month, Prostate Cancer Support Canada had over 130 landmarks across Canada lighting up in blue to bring awareness to the number 1 cancer in men.  Our thanks to The City of Windsor, who also participated in this event at our request.

Prostate Cancer Foundation Canada

Prostate Cancer Support Canada and the BC group amalgamated to continue as “Prostate Cancer Foundation Canada.”  There is a national conference, “Support Hub 2023” scheduled for Support Group leaders on Saturday afternoon, 28 October 2023.  Members are also welcome to join in. Garry will be chairing a break-out session during this conference.  We are looking for a volunteer to help Garry by taking notes to help document a record of discussion.  If you are able to volunteer for a few hours during this Zoom meeting, please let us know.

Other news from PCFC can be found at this link:

Your September 2023 Prostate Cancer Awareness Month Debrief

Prostate Cancer Support Windsor/Essex Baseball Caps and Shirts

Shirts and Baseball Caps, with our embroidered logo, are available for sale. Special thanks to Dr. Sorensen who has managed to sell over 100 of our baseball caps.  In addition to our Awareness Activities at events, selling our baseball caps is proving to be a great way to “advertise” our existence.  We would welcome any ideas on opportunities to sell our baseball caps.

Garry

Garry W. Loeper, CD, MScEng, PCIP, PMP, PEng

 “The Prostate Cancer Patient Empowerment Program – What You Need to Know and Do after a Prostate Cancer Diagnosis”

As we return to our Monthly Support Group Meetings after our Summer Break, we’re so pleased to bring you an outstanding program on The Prostate Cancer Patient Empowerment Program www.pcpep.org presented by our guest speakers, Dr. Robert Rutledge, MD and Gabriela Ilie, PhD live via Zoom from Halifax, N.S. and facilitated by Dr. Ronald Sorensen and Dr. Colvin Springer onsite at our monthly meeting.

Please mark your calendars to join us Tuesday, September 12th at 7:00 p.m. EDT sharp, either in person at Hospice of Windsor, 6038 Empress St., Windsor, Ontario, or via Zoom (link will be provided as we get closer to the meeting date).

Dr. Robert Rutledge, MD, FRCPC

Radiation Oncologist, Nova Scotia Cancer Centre
Associate Professor, Dalhousie University

Gabriela Ilie, PhD

Principal Investigator and Lead of the ProstateCancer-PEP (PC-PEP) Program
Dalhousie Faculty of Medicine Endowed Soillse Scientist in Prostate Cancer Quality of Life Research
Associate Professor Faculty of Medicine | Department of Community Health and Epidemiology | Department of Urology | Department of Radiation Oncology | Department of Psychology and Neuroscience

Tuesday 9 May Meeting

We plan to have another Hybrid-ZOOM meeting for our upcoming May members meeting at 7pm on Tuesday 9 May at the Hospice (Empress St.).  We are pleased to welcome our guest speaker, local Diagnostic Radiology Specialist, Dr. Igor Gaisinsky who will attend via ZOOM. Dr. Gaisinsky will present an overview of prostate imaging, available locally, and will discuss the role of different imaging modalities, showing some examples.

We hope to again have several newly diagnosed men and their wives/girlfriends to join this meeting; please also invite your sweethearts if possible.  Engaging newly diagnosed and their partners in a positive environment is a primary goal of our group; therefore, we hope to have as much participation as possible to give them a friendly welcome. 

We ask that you bring potluck snacks; these always make the meetings very enjoyable.

For those joining in remotely, the ZOOM Login details are as follows:

Topic: May 2023 PCSWE Support Group Meeting
Time: May 9, 2023 07:00 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)

Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87651260174?pwd=Qjh0SFRXREtwdFFrQ1VEUVVYMDdKZz09

Meeting ID: 876 5126 0174
Passcode: 578662

We again participated in this year’s Play for a Cure (www.playforacure.ca) fundraising event at the Vollmer Centre on Friday 14 April.  We participated with several volunteers from our group who put in a full day, but had an enjoyable time; our sincere thank-you to all of those who helped out.  This is an amazing annual event that offers our group lots of exposure, and our involvement is also sincerely appreciated by the event coordinators. Play for a Cure has now raised over $1 million for local cancer research in their three events. Special thanks to Jim F. for taking the lead.

Hospice Dove Pin Campaign

We also again participated in this year’s Hospice Dove Pin fundraising campaign (www.thehospice.ca/event/dovepin) which was held from 28 to 30 April.  Again, special thanks to the volunteers who helped out.  Our participation is very important since the Hospice provides the venue for our monthly meetings for free.  We appreciate all the help that the Hospice does for us and this is our way of giving back.  Special thanks to Murray for taking the lead.

Upcoming Awareness Events

On May 9th, Garry and Jim will speak to the Rotary Club of Windsor-Roseland luncheon.

We also plan on manning our awareness booth at the following function:

·         Wed 7 June – Canadian Association of Retired People (CARP) AGM

If you have any ideas on other events (e.g. sports, organizations, etc.) for us to speak to, or man our awareness booth, please let us know.

Upcoming Events Requiring Volunteers

We are currently committed to providing volunteers to the following fundraising events.

·         Wednesday 24 May – Windsor Regional Hospital Foundation Charity Golf Tournament (www.wrh.on.ca/golf) at the Essex Golf & Country Club supporting the Dr. Richard Boyd Men’s Health Program at WRH; and

Sunday 28 May – Motorcycle Ride for Dad (www.ridefordad.ca/chapter/windsor).

Ride for Dad is back in a big way this year, after the challenges of the past few years. This is a cause that’s near and dear to our hearts and every dollar raised from the Windsor/Essex ride is available to support our area. The organizers absolutely want us to participate again, as we have in the past, to help with staging the riders at the start (Thunder Road Harley Davidson) and controlling traffic at the end (Wolfhead Distillery). Our attendance at Ride for Dad reinforces our message that Prostate Cancer can be beaten if discovered early…..”Get Checked”. Hear the roar as hundreds of motorcycles ride throughout Windsor/Essex to support Prostate Cancer awareness and prevention. We need all our members to support Ride for Dad!

If you are interested in volunteering, please let us know.  In addition to manning our awareness booth at functions, volunteering at fundraising events is critical to our outreach program.  Please do not be shy, a few hours of your time goes a long way to achieving our goals of community awareness (e.g. early testing) and engaging the newly diagnosed.

Presentations to Companies and Organizations

We have given several well-received awareness presentations to companies and organizations; in several cases we also set up our awareness booth at Health/Wellness Fairs.  We are keen to approach the following companies with a view to providing awareness briefings and/or participating Health/Wellness Fairs.  Please let us know if you have any connection within your network to the following organizations or ideas on how best to approach them or others:

• University of Windsor
• St. Clair College
• Stellantis
• Ford Motor Company
• Sutherland Group Canada
• AP Plasman Corp
• Integram
• Valiant TMS
• TRQSS Inc.
• Anchor Danly
• Green Shield Canada
• NARMCO Group
• Highline Mushrooms
• Catalent Inc.
• Windsor Salt

June Social Gathering

Our Christmas party at Legion 594 (Howard Ave.) was a success whereby we piggy-backed on that Legion’s bi-weekly all-you-can-eat spaghetti dinner.  Like last year, we would like to have another social function to kick-off summer fun.  Legion 594 has a spaghetti night again on Tuesday 13 June which is coincident with our normally planned monthly meeting.  We plan to replicate this $10 spaghetti venue, which has considerable advantages.  Once again, the Legion will cordon off an area for our group.

We will provide more details next month, but please pencil in your calendars for now to arrive at the Legion around 5 pm; please also remember to bring pot-luck desserts.

National Group Latest Communiqué

The latest National Group communique has excellent presentations (e.g. Artificial Intelligence) and information on special support groups (e.g. Advanced, Active Surveillance, Partners, etc.).  Please take note of all the great resources that are available and don’t hesitate to take advantage at this link:

https://mailchi.mp/prostatecancerbc/may2023?e=30e4966d09

Garry