Thursday, September 22, 2011

Cancer, bad! Kilts, good!

I wish I had found out about this earlier in the month, perhaps even the end of last month to help, but it is Prostate Cancer Awareness Month, and as a fundraiser, several bloggers are in a contest for Kilted to Kick Cancer. Ambulance Driver has several posts about other bloggers who are kilting themselves this month, including a link to DIY instructions on making your own utility kilt. They're collecting donations for the Prostate Cancer Foundation and Livestrong, so all my loyal readers (both of you!) should go find someone among the many and donate! With a $40 donation to any of the contestants (or straight to PCF.org), Magnum Boots and Alt.Kilt will send you a KTKC t-shirt as a sign of their gratitude.

Here's some factoids to chew on. (Shamelessly borrowed from AD, here.)

Prostate Cancer Facts:

* About 240,890 new cases of prostate cancer will be diagnosed in 2011.
* About 33,720 men will die of prostate cancer in 2011.
* About 1 man in 6 will be diagnosed with prostate cancer during his lifetime.
* More than 2 million men in the United States who have been diagnosed with prostate cancer at some point are still alive today.
* Prostate cancer is the second leading cause of cancer death in American men, behind only lung cancer.
* About 1 man in 36 will die of prostate cancer.

Testicular Cancer Facts:

* It most often affects men between ages 20 and 39.
* It affects 8,000 men a year, and kills 390 of them.
* It is the most common form of cancer in men ages 15-34.
* 95% of cases can be cured if detected early.

One fact mentioned on the KTCK site, that hits home for me, is this:
Prostate and testicular cancers kill just as many men as breast cancer kills women. Since my wife already went in for her first breast exam, I should probably do similar for myself, to keep that boogieman away, as we already lost my mom's younger sister to breast cancer over a year and a half ago, all because she ignored it until she couldn't anymore (it had grown and spread to her lungs, and she finally saw a doc when she had trouble breathing).

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