SEPTEMBER 2024

As many of you know, September is National Prostate Cancer Awareness Month, a time when communities, churches, non-profits, and healthcare institutions hold events that stress the importance of PSA testing and early detection in the fight against prostate cancer. 

It has overlapped with a program I hope to continue in November (with a mustache), April (start of baseball season), and June (Men’s Health Month) called 30 Catches in 30 Days, an initiative which has allowed me to meet up with at least one catch partner each day of the month and spread the word that men need to go to the doctor, keep current with their cancer screenings, and STAY IN THE GAME.  

In addition to our Yankees and Mariners screenings (see below), there were several community events of note this month with a focus on prostate cancer, including Harlem Cares! (organized locally with the help of the American Cancer Society) and the Asbury Park (NJ) Quality of Life Community Fair. Standout (and free) educational events were the sixth annual NYC Prostate Cancer Summit, co-organized by NYP, Weill Cornell, and MSK, as well as the NYU Langone-Long Island Prostate Cancer Awareness Summit, with outstanding presentations given by Drs. Katz, Haas, and Corcoran.  

Visit our website in a week or so to keep updated on the 30 Catches in 30 Days. So far, my catch partners have included Ichiro Suzuki (!!!), Boomer Esiason, Tiki Barber, Buck Showalter, and about two dozen others. Our catch with New York City Mayor Eric Adams drew a crowd of reporters and videographers, with one video post on X (formerly Twitter) now up to 33,000 views. 

Enjoy the wonderful fall weather and come out to see us at an event in October (listed below). Thank you for supporting what we do.

Warm regards,

Ed Randall
Founder + Chief Advocacy Officer
Fans for the Cure

Many thanks to the Seattle Mariners (September 10) and the New York Yankees (September 12) for hosting in-person awareness nights and PSA screenings at their ballparks with Fans for the Cure and the teams’ healthcare partners, Virginia Mason Franciscan Health/Playbook for Health and Montefiore Einstein Health System, respectively. 

Congratulations to the Yankees and Montefiore (and Hideki Matsui, above) for setting a new standard for number of men screened at the ballpark. And hats off to the Mariners and their media partners for the terrific turnout for their first-ever event that included in-person testing. Men were continuing to register for a screening (along with the Mariner Moose) through the third inning of the game. 

Join Fans for the Cure and the New York Islanders for a Prostate Cancer Awareness Night on Saturday, October 19 (vs. Montreal) at UBS Arena in Elmont, N.Y., as part of the team’s Hockey With a Heart program. UBS Arena/Elmont is a stop on the LIRR, easily reached from Long Island and New York City (Grand Central and Penn Station).   

In addition to prostate cancer awareness announcements, videos, and in-arena interviews throughout the game, the Islanders are also making discounted-price tickets available for friends and supporters of Fans for the Cure to come out to support the charity and the Islanders’ initiative. For ticket information, email us at [email protected].

Fans for the Cure is in discussions to support the NHL and Hockey Fights Cancer, both in November and throughout the season. Stay tuned for games around the country where we will be working at arenas and in the communities with various teams to support HFC. There are also events in the works with our friends at Ice Hockey in Harlem.

Fans for the Cure will be honoring our longtime and tireless supporter, legendary QB and broadcaster Phil Simms, at the charity’s fourth Visionary Dinner. The evening will take place at Per Se Restaurant on Tuesday, October 29.  

For information about remaining tickets and sponsorships, please email us at [email protected].

The charity, Westchester County healthcare partners, and the County Executive’s office are currently in discussions about any number of awareness and screening events that will take place between January and March 2025.  

These will certainly include the City of New Rochelle, where we collaborated with Montefiore Einstein Health to screen more than 50 active and retired city employees at City Hall in November 2023.

Thanks to the generosity of our friends at Bayer, Fans for the Cure has been able to extend its podcast lineup to include interviews that focus on women’s/caregivers’ issues, including mental wellbeing, sexual health, and addressing the wide range of side effects often associated with prostate cancer treatment. 

Hosted by Women’s Support Group moderator Karen Shaffer, these conversations take a deep dive into the challenges of having a life partner who is dealing with a prostate cancer diagnosis.   

Upcoming guests will be noted urologist and public health leader, Dr. Stacy Loeb of NYU Langone, and clinical psychologist and best-selling author, Allison Applebaum, Ph.D..

For more information about the Women’s/Caregivers Series, please visit fansforthecure.org/category/podcast. Or write to us at [email protected].

To register for the Women’s Support Group, please click on the blue button below.

The Online Men’s Support Group was joined on Thursday, September 19, by one of the world’s most famous and effective advocates for prostate cancer patients, Howard Wolinsky. The lead medical writer of the Chicago Sun-Times for over twenty-five years, Wolinsky told the story of his 2010 diagnosis for a low-risk (Gleason 6, one core) prostate cancer for which his urologist nevertheless was recommending a prostatectomy a few days later. Fortunately, Howard sought out a second opinion, undertook a regimen of Active Surveillance (about 6% of low-risk men chose this option in 2010), and continues to be monitored about once a year – fourteen years later.  

In a wide-ranging discussion that ran 15-20 minutes into overtime, Howard spoke of his journey to writing about his experience in MedPage and Medscape, founding The Active Surveillor newsletter and becoming the co-founder of Active Surveillance Patients International (ASPI). The final 50 minutes or so of the discussion took the form of a Q&A about Active Surveillance, side effects, and the rewards and challenges of a life spent advocating for men’s health. 

As if his writing and panel appearances were not enough, Howard (age 77) is a full-time student in the Masters of Public Health Program at the University of Illinois – Chicago.  

Physician guests are being finalized for meetings in November and December. For more information about the Online Men’s Support Group, please click on that blue button below.

Our own Ed Randall with join forces with the hostess with the most-ess, Laura Slutsky, for an evening of non-stop entertainment to benefit the programs of Fans for the Cure. Bright lights from the worlds of comedy and Broadway are volunteering their talents, and we thank everyone who has agreed to be part of this incredible lineup.  

For more information and to get tickets, please hit the blue button below.

* For those of you who correct our every typo – yes, we know the word is customarily spelled “schmooze.” But thanks for caring and for correcting.   

Men’s Wellness and Prostate Cancer Awareness Day – September 28
Presented by Atlantic Health System and Adventist Health Ministries.
Special Guest: Dr. Andrew Chang
2303 Brunswick Avenue, Lawrenceville, NJ – 3:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.
For event information: [email protected]             

Shmoozin’ with Slutsky and Randall – September 30 (see above) 

30 Catches in 30 (or 31) Days – October and November … continues

Hockey With a Heart/Prostate Cancer Awareness Night – October 19
New York Islanders vs. Montreal Canadiens, 7:00 p.m. Anyone wishing to be a volunteer or to purchase discounted tickets for the game, please contact us at [email protected].

Visionary Dinner – October 29 
Honoring Giants legend and longtime broadcaster, Phil Simms. Tickets available at my.fansforthecure.org/visionarydinner2024 

GROW-vember – starts November 1
Stop shaving for a month to call awareness to the importance of men’s health and early detection of men’s cancers. Recruit friends and family to support your choice of facial hair, whether it be a beard, a mustache, a goatee, or a creation that is all your own. Get started at my.fansforthecure.org/growvember2024.

Both of our online support groups are free and open to all men and women respectively, with registration required.

Men's Support Group

• Thursday, October 3 at 7 PM ET – Register for the Men's Support Group meeting. 
• Thursday, October 17 at 7 PM ET

Women's Support Group

• Tuesday, October 1 at 8 PM ET – Register for the Women's Support Group meeting.
• Tuesday, October 15 at 8 PM ET

Fans for the Cure allows attendees to register for only the immediately upcoming online support group meeting. Thanks for understanding our desire to keep our meetings safe, secure, and private.

We thank Bayer for generously underwriting the technical and production costs associated with Fans for the Cure’s Online Men’s and Women’s/Caregivers’ Support Groups.

Over the past twenty years, Fans for the Cure has been fortunate to develop a strong network of trusted doctors, many of whom practice at NCI-Designated Cancer Centers and highly regarded regional hospitals. We are always available to assist you in finding a prostate cancer-focused physician or multidisciplinary team to guide you and your loved ones through all phases of the disease.

For timely referrals in all fifty states and Canada, please get in touch with us at (888) 301-4414 or via the orange button below. We promise to get back to you within twenty-four hours at the very latest.

In this section, we share links to blog posts, news articles, medical journals, books, and other items that we think will be of interest to you.

1. Nearly 40 percent of Gen Z men don’t have a primary care provider – published in the Washington Post.
2. VIDEO: Advanced stage prostate cancer diagnoses increases after decades of decline – According to the American Society of Cancer, nearly two out of three men 55 to 69 years old are not being screened for prostate cancer. Video features Dr. Daniel Petrylak, a member of our Medical Advisory Board.
3. Prostate Cancer Vaccines: What’s the Latest? – posted by the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
4. Meditating on the cancer journey – published in The Active Surveillor.
5. VIDEO: Raising Prostate Cancer Awareness – featuring Dr. Edward Schaeffer, chair of the Department of Urology at Northwestern Medicine.

Our 30 Catches in 30 Days initiative has generated a great deal of engagement with our core message of the importance of early testing – and how regular testing is equally important to catching prostate cancer in its earliest stages. Give $30 today (a dollar for every catch) to help us roll out to programs to additional communities in need.

Call us: 888-301-4414