Rick Sanderson’s journey from prostate cancer patient to survivor began in a parking lot.
He was watching his son play lacrosse in June 2011 when a friend asked to speak with him outside. The friend had been diagnosed with prostate cancer and urged Sanderson to get checked.
At 47, Sanderson was under the age doctors recommend getting tested at but after promising his friend, decided to follow through.
“I wouldn’t be here today talking to you if I hadn’t been tested,” he said.
Sanderson was diagnosed in July 2011, and spent five days in hospital for treatment. After eight weeks he was back to work. Now, nearly two years later, he’s still cancer-free.
On Sunday, he will participate in the Safeway Father’s Day Walk/Run, which raises money for the Prostate Centre in Victoria, at Royal Roads University. The event includes three- and eight-kilometre routes. Registration runs from 8 to 9:45 a.m., with the event starting at 10.
The non-profit Prostate Centre provides support and counselling for men who are diagnosed with prostate cancer.
The walk is their biggest fundraiser of the year, said Heather Gardiner, the centre’s interim executive director.
One of largest issues is the unwillingness to discuss prostate cancer in public, Gardiner said.
Sanderson said he struggled bringing up the issue with his loved ones.
“My initial thought was that I wasn’t going to tell anybody,” he said. “It was very tough to disclose it.”
Now, he doesn’t have that problem. Using a tattoo he got with his daughter — the blue tie that has become the sign for prostate cancer, along with family member’s names — he brings up the disease with other men and urges them to get tested.
The friend that made Sanderson promise to get tested wasn’t as lucky, and died of the disease.
Sanderson said he wants to keep talking about getting tested to make sure other men and their families don’t have to go through losing a loved one.
“It’s going to save lives. It’s going to save families,” he said.
“It’s something that needs to be discussed.”
By the numbers
• One in seven men in Canada will be diagnosed with prostate cancer in their lifetime. About 70 are diagnosed each day.
• One in 27 men will die of it.
• In 2012, 788 men were diagnosed on the Island; 114 died.
• When caught and treated early, prostate cancer has a survival rate of 90 to 95 per cent.
— Source: Canadian Cancer Society
