This Is Why - Doug Prusoff
The first thing I hated about cancer was the incidence rates. Likely not the place a lot of people start, but I had been lucky. I hadn’t seen any close friends go through it and I didn’t have any family members that had been battling the disease. And yet, I struggled to wrap my head around the amount of people in my life that could be affected and realized the odds were not on my side.
I started fundraising for the Movember Foundation 10 years ago and, at that time, was really more about having fun and doing good while trying to have a positive impact for my friends and family. Since that time, through my work with the Foundation, I have been exposed to more stories than I possibly could have imagined.
I’ve heard from individuals that have battled prostate and testicular cancer. I’ve heard from our community who have lost countless fathers, brothers, boyfriends, husbands, and sons. I’ve heard about the physical toll the disease can take and, perhaps even more significant, the mental toll that cancer takes not just on the patient, but on the entire support system.
No one ever thinks that it’s going to be them. No one ever thinks that it’s going to be their loved ones or someone they know. But cancer doesn’t discriminate. Sure, you may have some indicators that you are more or less likely to get diagnosed than others, but young or old, black or white, man or woman – cancer is something we all have to worry about.
There is a quote from Harry Potter that I often think about in relation to my work. “It was important, Dumbledore said, to fight, and fight again, and keep fighting, for only then could evil be kept at bay, though never quite eradicated. . . .”
I believe cancer is that evil, I believe we all have an obligation to fight it, and I am honored to work with groups like the Movember Foundation and Team I Hate Cancer who are fighting the good fight every day.
With every dollar raised and conversation started – we are creating positive change in the world. We are one step closer to creating a world where no one has to suffer through this terrible disease and one step closer to saying “I hated cancer”.
