THE "NEW" PROSTATE CANCER INFOLINK

The prostate cancer community (at least in the United States, so far) has a poor track record of political activism. We need to do better.

We offer a wide range of wonderful services to help patients, through Us TOO and Malecare and others. We have great, interactive, information systems. Michael Milken’s Prostate Cancer Foundation has built one of the most successful engines for raising money for research of any privately organized, disease-specific organization. … But when we need to energize a grassroots base to call on Congress for increased funding for the Department of Defense prostate cancer research program, or similar politically driven initiatives, we can barely get ourselves out of the dugout — let alone onto first base!

A few months ago, a small group of people came together to start such a real grassroots organization: the Prostate Cancer Community Awareness Councils. We aren’t going to compete with other organizations. We want to work with them: several well-known prostate cancer-related organizations have already committed to join with us in this initiative. Our first “test site” is the state of Colorado, but we want to build a national grassroots organization over the next 2 years that covers the entire country.

So what’s different about this initiative?

• We don’t need to raise money for some huge national organization — so we aren’t going to ask you to send us any.
• We want to work nationally — and perhaps even internationally — by working locally first.
• We want to be able to motivate tens of thousands of people to call, write to, and fax their Congressmen and Congresswomen when important issues are under discussion in Washington, DC or in state capitols around the country — and we want to work with people who have promised that they will make those calls and write those letters when they are asked to do so.
• We want to find and work with people across America who will be willing public voices in their community — however small and however large — about the risks men face from prostate cancer.

Whether you belong to a church, or a health club, or a school, or a hospital, you can help us if you are motivated. It doesn’t matter whether you have prostate cancer yourself or not — you can help the next generation of men to know more about how to think about this disease and support the need for education and research to provide better management.

• Look at the Prostate Cancer Community Awareness Councils’ new web site. It’s only a baby but it’s going to grow.
• Read the Pledge — and if you can promise to abide by it, fill it out and send it in.
• Take the decision that you can spread the key messages about prostate cancer developed by America’s Prostate Cancer Organizations: they aren’t complicated — but they are important.
• Tell your friends and neighbors and work colleagues that they can and should join you in this initiative.

America is at a critical turning point in the evolution of the health care systems we can provide — for ourselves today and for our children and our grandchildren tomorrow. Become a part of the solution. Choose prostate cancer as a cause worth fighting against.

Filed under: Living with Prostate Cancer Tagged: | Prostate Cancer Community Awareness Councils