Wake Up, get checked
Fourth edition of prostate cancer event raises $37,600 for research and care
Emotions ran from laughter to tears during a recordsetting Wake Up Call breakfast designed to raise money and awareness for prostate cancer research and care.
Justice Ken Haley provided the laughter as keynote speaker with his upbeat attitude toward winning his recent battle with prostate cancer.
And though he garnered some initials laughs, tears flowed when David Muise took the stage to accept the ‘Local Hero’ award.
“I do not consider myself a local hero or a hero of any type, although if I have anymore radiation I could be a superhero,” Muise said during his speech.
“A local hero is the husband or the wife who cares for their spouse who has cancer and never stops loving them despite changes — physical, mental — the stress and strain it puts on a relationship.”
Chemotherapy is not pretty either, he noted.
“The after-effects are sometimes horrendous and those people who stay together and can still say ‘I love you at the end,’ that is a hero to me.”
Doctors, nurses and support staff at the Cape Breton Cancer Centre and in the palliative care department are also his heroes.
“We are blessed to have that cancer centre and they are my heroes.”
It was Haley’s lighted-hearted approach to early detection that livened up the early portion of the breakfast, especially when he referenced Prostate Cancer Canada’s new awareness campaign that compares getting a checkup to something that’s as quick as paying for parking.
“That now explains why when I get a prostate exam I had to give my doctor a toonie,” Haley said early in his speech.
Haley was diagnosed almost by chance last January after noticing some concerning symptoms.
A kidney stone was the eventual diagnosis but a pair of prostate exams along the way also pointed to prostate cancer.
“All I can say is ‘thank you kidney stone’ because that brought me to the doctor earlier than I might have been and who knows what would have transpired if my cancer had gone undetected for another six months.”
Biopsy results in April confirmed aggressive prostate cancer. His treatment was successful and Haley is now cancer free.
“My goal here today is to change our mindset,” he said. “I think it would be wonderful if we all thought of the ‘C’ word as standing for check and not cancer, so let’s make that our mission.”
Haley penned a poem to help with that awareness campaign entitled “The prostate exam, a Judicial Perspective” to help inspire others to get checked and the motto: early detection to avoid infection.
The Cape Breton Regional Hospital Foundation and Prostate Cancer Canada Atlantic partnered on Wednesday’s Wake Up Call breakfast. The fourth annual edition of the event held at Centre 200 raised a record $37,600.