This time of year has been and continues to be very busy with your Steering Committee having been very active with a variety of activities and planning for upcoming events.  There are lots of volunteering opportunities coming up, many entailing food.  If you have a few hours to spare, please consider helping out with some of the upcoming events listed below.  If you have other thoughts on events for us to participate in, please let us know.

UPCOMING MEETINGS

Tuesday 14 May 2024 Meeting – Windsor Motorcycle Ride for Dad

For the upcoming monthly meeting Tuesday 14 May, Cori Miles will give a presentation on the Windsor Motorcycle Ride for Dad (MRfD) Prostate Cancer fundraising campaign.  Cori and her husband (Shane) are co-chairs of this annual local event.

Established in 2000, the MRfD fight against prostate cancer is committed to help save men’s lives and improve the quality of life for men and their families living with the disease.  Every year, thousands of participants, supporters, and friends raise funds for the MRfD initiatives held in communities from coast to coast to coast across Canada.  Proceeds are received by its charity, the Prostate Cancer Fight Foundation, to fund ground-breaking prostate cancer research and life-saving awareness campaigns to benefit the area where the money is raised.

Cori’s presentation is expected to touch on the following topics:

• Background of Cori and Shane and their motivation for running the local MRfD;
• History of Windsor’s MRfD;
• A run down of all the preps, resources, & volunteer horsepower make it happen;
• The typical event schedule;
• Some statistics on number of participants and money raised over the years;
• Examples of things that the MRfD donations have funded;
• Their vision for the future of MRfD; and
• The need for volunteers.

We hope you can join us at 7pm Tuesday 14 May.  As usual, this will be a Hybrid-ZOOM event.  You can meet in-person at the Hospice (Empress St.) or via ZOOM at the link below:  https://us02web.zoom.us/j/6953623178

Tuesday 11 June 2024 Spring Get Together

It is proposed to have another “BBQ” get-together for the June meeting.  This needs to be discussed to confirm and flesh out details on a venue – possibly at Legion 594.  Unfortunately, the Legion’s bi-weekly spaghetti night coincides with our June meeting.  Consequently, if we choose the Legion, it would have to be a spaghetti dinner like the Xmas dinner.  If the weather is good, we could have our spaghetti on the patio.

If folks would prefer something different, we can either:

• Change the date;
• Change the venue; or
• Not have a BBQ.

Please let us know your thoughts.

RECENT EVENTS

Play for a Cure – Friday 17 April 2014

Thanks to all of you for participating in this year’s Play for a Cure event.  It was another tremendous success, raising over $400,000 for local cancer research.  It was also a great opportunity for us to promote awareness of our group, and get our message of “Get Checked” across to a key demographic for us. 

Volunteers included Garry, Josephine, Ed, Murray, Dennis, Don, Greg, Noel, Wayne, and Steve.  Bravo Zulu to Jim for taking the lead.  Event organizers were very appreciative of our involvement.

City of Windsor – Firefighters

We approached The City of Windsor last year to request that we give a lunch/learn presentation to City staff.  After several postponements, Sarah Fox, a Wellness Specialist in Human Resources for The City of Windsor arranged four (4) daily webinar sessions (15-20 attendees each) with Windsor Firefighters, April 23-26. The briefings went very well.

Hospice Dove Pin Campaign – Thursday 25 April to Sunday 28 April 2024

Thank-you to all who volunteered for the Hospice Dove Pin campaign.  The Hospice, who lets us use their facility for free, very much appreciated the effort by all our members who helped.

CURRENT EVENTS

Windsor Regional Hospital (WRH) Foundation DaVinci Campaign

The WRH Foundation has launched the new campaign April 18th to raise funds for an update of the DaVinci Robotic Surgery Machine.  The campaign literature (email and mail) includes Jim Fair’s story of having to go “up the road” for robotic surgery that can now be done locally.  Thank-you Jim for offering to share your story with all of Windsor/Essex.

FUTURE EVENTS

WRH Foundation Golf Tournament – Wednesday May 22, 2024 at Essex Golf & Country Club

The WRH Foundation golf tournament is planned for Wednesday May 22, 2024 at Essex Golf & Country Club.  Funds from this year’s tournament will once again support the Dr. Richard Boyd Men’s Health Program, specifically with funding being directed to assist with the purchase of a new DaVinci Robot for Windsor Regional Hospital.  The current machine has reached the end of its lifespan and the WRH is in need of a new machine, so funds from the tournament will assist with that purchase.

We are looking for volunteers to spend about three (3) hours as witnesses for the “Hole-in-One” and “Beat the Pro contests.”  The golf course is beautiful and volunteers are welcome to a nice brunch beforehand or cocktail reception afterwards.

Please let us know if you are interested in participating.

Motorcycle Ride for Dad (MRfD) – Sunday 26 May 2024

The Motorcycle Ride for Dad (MRfD) event is always amazing and all funds remain local.  This has always been a fun day for all who volunteered and your day also includes a meal at the end.  If you are able to help out, please let us know.  Just a reminder that the event time is from 7am to 10am Sunday morning; if you are able to volunteer this year, please show up at Thunder Road Harley Davidson for 6AM.  If you can’t make it that early, please arrive before 9am as the motorcycles “launch” at 10am and we are required for that.

OTHER VOLUNTEER NEEDS

We are also still looking for help such as financial manager and web-site support.

NETWORKING FOR NEW MEMBERS

The Steering Committee believes that most of our recent new members found out about our group through word of mouth.  It is proposed to mail a handful of our business cards to a hockey-sock of members with a covering letter requesting that you pass on our business cards to anyone you encounter who may be interested in our group or just getting advice.

If you receive business cards in the mail, please pass on to anyone you are aware of who are touched by prostate cancer.  If you don’t receive business cards, but would like some, please let us know.

PROSTATE CANCER FOUNDATION CANADA LATEST NEWSLETTER

Please remember that Prostate Cancer Foundation Canada (www.prostatecanada.ca), does an amazing job and provides significant valuable support to our group and support groups across the country.   We encourage you to visit their web-site; it is a mint of information and help that directly helps individuals.  The following is a link to their latest monthly newsletter:

News | Prostate Cancer Foundation Canada (prostatecanada.ca)

Your Steering Committee hopes that everyone is well, and having a wonderful New Year so far.

Tuesday 9 April 2024 Monthly Meeting
Our upcoming meeting is planned for a 7:00pm start on Tuesday 9 April 2024. It will be a  Hybrid-ZOOM meeting; please join us in person at the Hospice (Empress St.) or remotely at the following ZOOM Link:

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

For those attending in person, please bring pot-luck desserts if possible.

For this month’s meeting, we will view a YouTube Video presentation by Dr. Jack Barkin, on High-Intensity Focused Ultrasound (HIFU) for prostate cancer treatment (https://youtu.be/XXI8NteEllE). HIFU is a minimally invasive medical procedure that uses ultrasound waves to treat certain conditions, such as tumors, uterine fibroids and tremor. The very high-intensity and highly focused sound waves interact with targeted tissues in your body to modify or destroy them.

Dr. Jack Barkin, the founding partner and medical director of Can-Am HIFU, who performed the first Canadian HIFU treatment in 2006, speaks about this ‘most effective, minimally invasive’ localized prostate cancer treatment. He has authored over 100 papers on different aspects of urology in medical and urologic journals, worked on over 250 clinical trials, served as a medical advisory board member for many organizations, and speaks in countries around the world.

Dr. Sorenson will also be available (via ZOOM) to answer any questions.

Future Meetings
We will be working with Dr. Sorensen for presenters for our May meeting. We also hope to have a spring BBQ for the June meeting. We had a get-together last June at Legion 594 (Howard Ave). We would welcome any ideas on this or other venues for a Spring BBQ. We look forward to seeing as many folks as possible. Please remember to “advertise” our group and meetings to anyone you are aware of that is dealing with prostate cancer.

Volunteering Opportunities

Thanks to those who offered to lend a hand at this year’s Play for A Cure event, Friday April 19th at Vollmer Centre, LaSalle. You can still show your support by attending the evening All-Star Game. Details and tickets available through this link: 2024 All-Star Game – Play for a Cure

We are still a few weeks away from some other events needing our support including:

Hospice Dove Pin Campaign – Thursday 25 April to Sunday 28 April 2024. Details and volunteer sign-up at this link: Events for April 2024 – Windsor Essex Hospice (thehospice.ca)

WRH Foundation Golf Tournament – Wednesday May 22, 2024 at Essex Golf & Country Club. This will be a fundraising event for a new DaVinci Surgical Robot Machine for the WRH;

Motorcycle Ride for Dad

Sunday 26 May 2024. Details/sign-up/pledge at this link: Windsor – Ride For Dad

If you are interested in participating in these or other events, please let us know. They are very worthy campaigns that are important to us in helping spread the word of early detection and our existence as a support group.

A few hours of your time are very valuable to us and our cause.

Prostate Cancer Foundation Canada Latest Newsletter
Please remember that Prostate Cancer Foundation Canada (www.prostatecanada.ca), does an amazing job and provides significant valuable support to our group and support groups across the country. We encourage you to visit their web-site; it is a mint of information and help that directly helps individuals. Monthly newsletters can be accessed through this link:

News | Prostate Cancer Foundation Canada (prostatecanada.ca)

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

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

No Support Group Meeting In February

Tuesday February 14th – Happy Valentine’s Day! Our usual evening meeting will be canceled so that everyone can spend the evening with someone special in their life. 

A message from Garry:

Hello All

Your Steering Committee hopes that everyone is doing well and had a great Holiday Season as well as enjoying the relatively mild winter so far. The nasty stuff is knocking on our door this week.

Guy Jolin

First of all, we want to pass on that our dear friend, Guy Jolin, is currently going through a difficult time and is hospitalized at Hotel-Dieu. Guy has been with our group for many many years and is a valued member of your Steering Committee.  Our thoughts are with him and his wonderful wife Joannie.  If anyone would like to connect with Guy, he would welcome any text messages at 519-981-8215. You can also contact us if you want some information such as how to best communicate with Guy.

Winter Program

We wanted to give everyone a quick update on our winter program changes and plans.  Most importantly is our decision to NOT have a February membership meeting.  We did not take this decision lightly; however our feedback to date has concluded that there will be minimal attendance due to many members being away, enjoying southern climates, as well as many who would prefer more romantic endeavors on Valentines Day. Weather is always a wild card for travel to a February meeting. In addition, our winter program is planning to attract Urologists and Radiologists as speakers; after our long COVID pause, we want to make sure there is maximum participation for these respected presenters.

Please take advantage of any or all of the upcoming programs offered online by Prostate Cancer Support Canada. Check out details below or follow this link:

https://mailchi.mp/prostatecancerbc/january-2023-newsletter?e=30e4966d09

It is our plan to have our next meeting on Tuesday 14 March at the Hospice.  We are working hard to try and have this meeting as a hybrid ZOOM meeting. This would allow those in attendance at Hospice to enjoy real person interaction (and Noel’s banana bread), but also to allow out of town folks, and others not able to attend, to participate.

In the meantime, please continue to provide us with suggestions on how to improve our program.

Garry

As we move into the new year, we look back with gratitude and look forward with excitement. We can’t wait to continue working with you – our incredible community – to improve and expand the support that we provide to prostate cancer patients and their loved ones across Canada. As always, if you have suggestions, comments, or questions about any of our services, please feel free to reach out.

Have your grandkids for the weekend and want to keep them busy? Or do you or someone you know enjoy drawing, painting, creating, or designing? We need your help to design the Father’s Day Walk/Run’s 25th anniversary T-shirt! Please submit your creation to Nicole (nicole@prostatecancerbc.ca) by Thursday, January 26th.

THURSDAY, JAN 26TH, 2023 | 6PM PST (9PM EST)
Prostate cancer affects both partners in a relationship. This support group offers a safe space for caregivers and loved ones to share their experiences, triumphs, and concerns. 

Check out the Partners in Prostate forum where you can chat with other partners 24/7.
Register now

Coast to Coast Prostate Cancer Support Group TUESDAY, JAN 31ST, 2023 11AM PST (2PM EST)

Join us for our Coast to Coast support group meeting that will feature special guest speaker, Dr. Phil Cohen. Dr. Phil Cohen will be speaking on theranostics in nuclear medicine and the role that they play in prostate cancer. “Theranostics” is a combination of the terms “therapeutics” and “diagnostics.” The term is used to describe the combination of using one radioactive drug to identify (diagnose) and a second radioactive drug to deliver therapy to treat the main tumor and any metastatic tumors.

Register now

TUESDAY, JAN 31ST, 2023 | 
7 PM EST (4 PM PST)

PCS Toronto welcomes Dr. Andrew J. Evans, Chief of Pathology at Mackenzie Health who will be speaking on ‘Understanding Gleason Scores and Pathology Reports.’This presentation will cover the processing of prostate needle core biopsies and radical prostatectomy specimens and how pathologists establish a histologic diagnosis of prostate cancer. 

Register now

WEDNESDAY, FEB 8TH, 2023 |  4PM PST (7PM EST) This group welcomes men and their loved ones dealing with prostate cancer that has spread, that no longer responds to ADT, or is high risk. Advanced prostate cancer patients deal with unique issues. Come for the information, stay for the support. New attendees are given priority to share. For immediate support, check out the Advanced Prostate Cancer forum where you can chat with other partners 24/7.

Register now

THURSDAY, FEB 9TH, 2023 |  4:30PM PST (7:30PM EST) This group offers support and information to men looking into active surveillance as a non-invasive treatment option for their low- or intermediate-risk prostate cancer. Learn more about how active surveillance works and why it’s not the same as just ‘avoiding treatment.’

Register now

TUESDAY, FEB. 28TH, 2023 | 
11 AM PST (2 PM EST)

Following Justin Lorentz’s presentation will be an opportunity for Q&A and support group discussion.
Register now