More men getting screened for prostate cancer in Jamaica
Published:Wednesday | October 16, 2013 | 12:00 AM
Janet Silvera, Senior Gleaner Writer
WESTERN BUREAU:
Discarding fear of any homophobic connotation, some 348 men from St James turned out for prostate cancer screening at what the Rotary Club of Montego Bay East and the Jamaica Cancer Society have tagged an 'oversubscribed' event.
This figure is a whopping 250 per cent increase over 2012. The organisers expected to reach at least 200 men this year, 90 more than were screened last year.
The men, aged between 40 and 65 years old, flooded the Montego Bay Civic Centre recently, allowing a full team of female urologists from the Cornwall Regional Hospital and other medical facilities in the region to carry out digital rectal examinations and prostate-specific antigen (PSA) on them.
The tests were done free of cost.
"The all-female team, I believed, allowed us to get beyond the homophobia," said Rotary Club of Montego Bay East President Dale Davis, adding that many more men turned up at the civic centre, but because of the wait time were forced to leave.
"The support was overwhelming," he explained, noting that the medical team had their hands full.
According to the Rotary president, the total economic impact was $2.26 million, with corporate Montego Bay placing its hands on deck supporting the project. Companies such as Tank-weld, AJAS Limited, ID Warehouse, Architectural Point, Rainforest Seafoods and Margaritaville Caribbean provided financial resources.
Heartened by the turnout, cancer survivor, Odell Lewis of the Jamaica Cancer Society said it was a marked difference to the times when he was told by men he approached that "nobody not gonna touch my backside", in response to getting tested.
Lewis said early detection was the key to surviving the cancer he was diagnosed with six years ago.
"I had Stage Two and didn't know, because early prostate cancer has no symptoms whatsoever," he cautioned, adding that when the symptoms occur, it was almost too late to stop its devastating effect.
Many of the men, obviously concerned about their health, said taking the test helped to erase the myths that have caused them to shy away over the years.
"Listening to men normally and experiencing it (the test) for myself was not a bad experience at all," said Gareth Walker, who was doing his first test.
Godfrey Downer, 57, who had to be guided into the building, owing to blindness in one eye, and blurred vision in the next, said taking the test was one of the ways of making sure his body was healthy.
Downer was doing the test for the second time in two years.