At their Aug. 2 meeting, the Gloucester County Board of Commissioners issued a proclamation designating September as Prostate Cancer Awareness Month in Gloucester County.
This year, 288,300 men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer and about 34,700 will die from the disease. One in eight men are diagnosed with prostate cancer in their lifetime. African Americans and veterans are at higher risk of contracting the disease and dying from it.
Education regarding prostate cancer and early detection strategies are critical to saving lives. If diagnosed early, men with prostate cancer have a five year survival rate of nearly 100 percent. However, for late-stage prostate cancer, the survival rate drops to 31 percent. Due to delayed screenings and treatment because of Covid 19, many more men are being diagnosed at a later stage this year
Woolwich resident Joe Musumeci, an 11 year prostate cancer survivor and facilitator of the Fighting Men Fighting Cancer prostate cancer support group, contacted every county and municipality in New Jersey to have proclamations issued designating September as Prostate Cancer Awareness Month. This is an initiative of ZERO Prostate Cancer, www.zerocancer.org, the largest national prostate cancer non-profit whose mission is to find a cure for prostate cancer and offer support for patients, survivors, and caregivers.
For more information about the support group, contact Joe at joe4seeds@gmail.com. And please, make sure every man you know over the age of 45 has regular PSA and DRE exams. It may save their lives.
Pictured above are: Renee Haney, National Chapters Director for ZERO Prostate Cancer, Erica Spina, Joe Musumeci, Commissioner Jim Jefferson, Helen Musumeci, facilitator for the Tender Loving Caregivers Support Group, Survivor Mike Spina, and Director Frank DiMarco.
