Walk to raise prostate cancer awareness

The Barbados Cancer Society (BCS) launched the inaugural Men’s Prostate Cancer Awareness Walk to encourage more men to get tested for the disease.

During the press conference at JADA Group Inc. headquarters in Black Bess, St Peter, BCS president Professor R. David Rosin said that prostate cancer was one of the least aggressive cancers, but claimed the lives of more than 300 men each year because of reluctance to get tested.

“We’re here today [yesterday] to really promote the awareness of prostate cancer. It’s a very important subject because cancer [of] the prostate is the commonest cancer in Barbados. It accounts for over 320 people every year suffering from this disease, and it is the highest number of cancer deaths in the country. It’s about 310 a year, men dying of prostate cancer,” he disclosed.

He also said that following trials last year, they would be offering tests at lower rates.

Rosin, along with Emeritus Professor of Surgery at Yale University, Irvin Modlin, and Laboratory and Scientific Director at Wren Laboratories, Mark Kidd conducted one of the largest trials in the world screening men of African descent for prostate cancer.

“. . .This test [prostate-specific antigen] costs 500 US dollars. We’ve now got an agreement that men in Barbados can be tested at a much-reduced cost of $200,” he said.

JADA’s chief executive officer (CEO), Philip Tempro, said that his company was proud to be sponsoring the walk, which will start and end at the Garrison Savannah.

“We started with breast cancer, we moved to childhood cancer, and I think we’ve kind of settled ourselves now on prostate cancer, and we’ve made a pledge that we will support prostate cancer going forward. And it was quite interesting to get educated because everybody in Barbados talks about breast cancer, but prostate is killing more people. Not because it’s the worst cancer [but] because of education, lack of knowledge so we really are going to focus heavily on this event and many more,” Tempro said.

He lauded the Barbados Cancer Society for their work to raise awareness about cancer in Barbados and donated $25,000 dollars to the charity. The CEO assured them that as the company continued to increase its revenue, so would their contributions. (RT)