JULY 2023

I wish you all could have been with us on July 9th at Memorial Stadium in Cedar Rapids. Together with our enthusiastic and hard-working colleagues at Mercy Urology and the Cedar Rapids Kernels, we spent, we spent a sunny Sunday afternoon talking to local baseball fans about the importance of early and regular testing for prostate cancer. The Kernels wrapped up a perfect afternoon by inviting all fans onto the field for a post-game catch in the ballpark's outfield. Read below for more.

I offer my own thanks to Marianne Disick for generously spending an evening with our Online Women's Support Group. Marianne is an experienced practitioner with a focus on mindfulness who has now made herself available to the women in our support group on two occasions. Read on to get her key takeaway for supporting husbands and partners with prostate cancer.

Be sure to catch our latest episode of Stay in the Game. The conversation with Dr. Jonathan Leeman is a Stay in the Game EXTRA – a special episode brought to you by our partner at MRIdian by ViewRay. Tune into this conversation to learn more about MRI-guided adaptive SBRT.

Best wishes,

Ed Randall
Founder + Chief Advocacy Officer
Fans for the Cure

Fans for the Cure went on the road over the weekend of July 8-10 to participate in a Prostate Cancer Awareness Day on which we collaborated with Mercy Hospital Urology and the Cedar Rapids Kernels.

During the game volunteers from the Mercy Hospital Urology Clinic staffed a table with Fans for the Cure and handed out educational materials to hundreds of visitors from among the paid crowd of 3,007. Dr. Matthew Ferroni was among several urologists who were on hand to consult with and answer questions from both men and women.

At the conclusion of the game, all fans were invited onto the field to have a catch. As part of Fans for the Cure’s Catch for the Cure initiative, we teamed up with Rawlings to distribute free baseballs (over 500) to all participants in the post-game catch. Kernels players also made themselves available on the field after the game to sign baseballs.

Thanks go out to Mercy Hospital (especially to Dr. Ferroni and Sarah Norris), the Kernels (Jessica Fergesen and Scott Wilson), and Rawlings (and Mike Thompson) for a terrific day at the ballpark on so many levels.  

Fans for the Cure's Online Women's Support Group recently welcomed a very special returning guest, Marianne Disick. Marianne holds a master's degree in Lifestyle Management with a particular focus on Mindfulness and Wellness. 

With a wealth of experience working with pre- and post-surgery patients and clients, as well as with people experiencing a wide range of cancer-related issues involving both physical and mental health, Marianne walked the women on the call through how to practice mindfulness and how to enhance their overall well-being while being supportive to their husbands and partners.

The key takeaway: Acknowledging men’s emotions opens up the conversation, and being a good listener is the most important thing you can do as a partner. 

Marianne recommended the following book to the women: The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom by Don Miguel Ruiz.

Longtime Yankee Roy White and former Dodgers’ star Steve Garvey teamed up at the Cradle of Aviation Museum in Uniondale, New York, on July 18 to talk baseball at a well-attended event that benefitted the ongoing programs of Fans for the Cure.

White, whose recently released book, From Compton to the Bronx, has garnered stellar reviews, noted that he learned to be competitive back in the earliest days of his local Little League, an organization that produced five Major League players among his contemporaries, including Dodgers’ star, Reggie Smith. Garvey’s stories also went back to his youth, describing his days as a Dodgers’ batboy in the ‘50s, thanks to his father who was the spring training bus driver for the team. Steve told a poignant story of spotting his boyhood idol and one-time spring training friend, Gil Hodges, (then managing the Mets) in the opposing dugout as he made his way to the plate for his first career at-bat in the Major Leagues on September 1, 1969. 

Besides Roy and Steve, Fans for the Cure thanks WPIX-TV for covering the event on both the evening news and on its weekend baseball show. Special recognition goes out to Cradle of Aviation president Andy Parton for his generosity in hosting us and extending the museum’s closing time so that early-arriving attendees were able to tour the incredible galleries.  

Fans for the Cure interviewed radiation oncologist Dr. Jonathan Leeman of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute/Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston in the first of a series of podcasts focusing on MRI-guided adaptive SBRT in limiting side-effect toxicities in treating prostate cancer. A recent study showed a 60 percent reduction in short-term gastrointestinal side effects with MRI-guided SBRT versus CT-guided SBRT.  

In a wide-ranging interview, Dr. Leeman made a strong case for adaptive SBRT, even given the staffing requirements. He said he believed that the outcomes and reduction in side effects justified the resources required to purchase and staff these machines.

Congratulations to the Uzo Felix Health Foundation on the success of their inaugural Prostate Cancer Awareness Health Fair, held on July 15 in Roosevelt, N.Y.

According to a follow-up email from the Foundation, over 150 individuals passed through the event to consult with over 20 health vendors and gather information with the purpose of making life improvements. There were mobile screening units from the Nassau University Medical Center and Mount Sinai Hospital, which also sent a urologist who met with men for the four-hour duration of the event.  

Fans for the Cure looks forward to continuing successful collaborations with the UFHF.  

Fans for the Cure will honor two of its longtime friends and supporters – MLB Hall of Famer Andre Dawson and Dr. Chris Gonzalez, Chair of the Department of Urology at Loyola Medicine. The festivities will take place on Thursday, October 5, at Smith & Wollensky from 5:30 until 9 pm.

Tickets will be on sale to the public starting on August 1, 2023.

For information about sponsorships, please email [email protected]. This is also the address where you can direct any questions.  

The following events are part of our work with Molloy University, the University's School of Nursing, and Molloy's Community Care mobile health screening unit. We will be on hand answering questions about prostate cancer and sharing educational and awareness materials.

Saturday, August 12
Heritage Celebration at the office of Legislator Gonzalez
55 2nd Avenue, Brentwood, NY
12:30 PM – 4:00 PM

Saturday, August 26
Academy Charter School Hempstead Influence Day
Parking Field 5, directly behind 78 North Franklin Street, Hempstead, NY
10:00 AM – 2:00 PM

Watch the website for August events to which we might be invited on short notice.

As a reminder to our readership, we are sharing again the schedule of upcoming meetings where we will have a doctor joining our online support group meetings.

Men’s Sexual Health – TBD

MRI-guided Radiotherapy – Himanshu Nagar, MD, Weill Cornell Medicine – August 24, 2024 (confirmed) 

MD/Genetic Researcher – Sachein Sharma, MD, MPH  – September 21, 2023 (confirmed) 

Mental Health Professional – November

We will keep sharing information and updates as they become available.

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

Men's Support Group

• Thursday, July 27 at 7 PM ET – Register for the Men's Support Group meeting.
• Thursday, August 10 at 7 PM ET

Women's Support Group

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

As a reminder, our Women's Support Group will meet once in July and once in August, before returning to its twice monthly schedule in September.

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.

At Fans for the Cure, we advocate for men to connect with solid, proven doctors who can deliver that sense of "This is the right way forward."

Through our community programs, health events, and local and national outreach, we have established an extensive network of leading urologists, oncologists, and medical professionals with whom we have established relationships and whom we trust with medical referrals. Should you be seeking a medical referral, we are happy to help connect you with doctors in all areas of the country for testing, second opinions, and guidance explaining treatment options.

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. BOOK:  The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom by Don Miguel Ruiz – Recommended to our Online Women's Support Group by Marianne Disick.
2. MR-Guided Adaptive SBRT Tied to Reduced Side Effects in Prostate Cancer – includes a quote from Dr. Jonathan Leeman, recently a guest on our Stay in the Game podcast.
3. Localized Therapy Improves Prognosis in Some Men With Metastatic Prostate Cancer
4. For prostate cancer info videos, patients prefer hearing from a physician
5. Prostate cancer survivor shares his story so men won't suffer in silence

Week in and week out, we are on site at health fairs and awareness events informing men and women of the importance and value of early and regular testing for prostate cancer. Your gift today helps fund our work – and enables us to keep supporting the prostate cancer community.

Call us: 888-301-4414