An increasing number of Waipā men are being exposed to potentially life-saving messaging about the dangers of prostate cancer, largely through the efforts of the Cambridge Prostate Cancer Support Group.
The support group falls under the umbrella of the Prostate Cancer Foundation of New Zealand and is run by those who have experience of the disease. Its members urge men, and their partners, to take a proactive approach to their health, and to ensure they have annual prostate checks from the age of 40. It also supports those either undergoing treatment, or who have come out the other side.
Support group co-ordinator Ron Greenwood and his 2IC Ken Methven have been busy over the past few months taking that message to groups and businesses around the region. Just before hosting their final monthly dinner for 2024, they had spent two days talking to staff at Waikeria Prison – it is one of several larger workplaces they have been invited to over the past year.
“We’re getting more and more involved with the community as well,” Greenwood said. They were involved in a men’s health expo earlier this year and were at the recent Cambridge Community House Movember Tradies Breakfast.
“More and more people are aware of the need to catch prostate cancer early and are being proactive in getting themselves checked. At the end of the day, if we can prevent just one death from the disease, it will be good.”
The New Zealand Cancer Registry reports that every year more than 4000 men are diagnosed with the disease and more than 700 of them die. One in eight will develop it during their lifetime.
Greenwood said that from what he hears on the ground, that figure is probably more than one in eight.
The support group is also finding an increasing number of members joining the regular exercises classes it holds.
Members attending the last support group dinner meeting for the year heard from guest speaker, New Zealand rower Ben Taylor.
Taylor was reserve for the men’s squad at the Paris Olympics and he spoke about his training schedule and hopes for the next games.
Ron Greenwood, left, and Ken Methven flank New Zealand rower Ben Taylor at the support group’s final dinner for the year. Photo: Viv Posselt
