Grassroots
I Have A Dream
A Journey Across America for Prostate Cancer
by
Don Cooley
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| Don Cooley, maestro of prostate cancer help mailing lists, at a celebration last year with his wife Michiko and their children Mariko and Daniel. This, Don says, "is the last time you'll see me in a suit." |
San Jose, CA. January 1, 2000
The other day my wife and I were talking about another motor home trip. Last summer, we stopped at some homes of people
on the Prostate Help Mailing List, which I run. These real-world meetings were enjoyed by all. We've been thinking that we'd like to repeat the experience this summer.
On New Year's Day, I watched a
PBS special looking back at segregation in the South and comparing it with what was
happening around that time in South Africa. The program replayed the bus ride across
the South by blacks and emphasized how how much attention that focused on the problem
of segregation.
That got me thinking about prostate cancer and how it plays a relatively minor role in medicine compared to some of the other cancers..... And how we could
take a ride for prostate cancer help.
Now, I don't get involved in the political arena -- the pins, the fund
raising, the giving to research on behalf of our disease. What I have done
is try to reach increasing numbers of men diagnosed with prostate cancer, across this country and
around the world, to help them cope with their cancer. This is what I do
best and what I enjoy. It is down in the trenches with all of you
fighting this disease. I don't care to play the politics of organizations
on a national level -- just help those in need at any level that I can
reach them.
Along with my thinking, this is what I could see happening in an attempt
to reach both those men and loved ones out there who do not have access to the
Internet and those who connect through E-mail lists.
I propose that we start a Motor Home/ Camper/ Tents/ Auto Journey
Across America. If the journey started in San Jose,where I happen to live, it could go south
into the San Diego area and then east across the country into Florida' then up
the east coast, back west to Washington State, and home. Along the
way, we'd try to hit as many areas as possible. This is how I see it.
Prostate-Help
Patients Helping Patients
Journey across America for Prostate Cancer.
Not a journey for a cure but a journey to educate and to help.
Along the way we'd stop and visit support groups if they happened to be meeting; visit some of the well known prostate cancer doctors and anything
else that we could visit to help. We would try to get TV, radio and
newspaper coverage ahead of coming to town. Hold a town
hall meeting about prostate cancer. Use churches, hospitals, halls
for meetings. In areas where we know of celebrities with
prostate cancer, try to get them involved in a meeting while we are there.
How would the Journey be achieved? We would start from one place with as many
vehicles as we could muster, all with signs on them. Proceed across the country
picking up and dropping off vehicles as we go along. We could send a
few people out on side trips to areas that the main procession doesn't go through directly; they could
up with us the next day. With enough interest, we could havenumerous side trips as we cross the nation.
Big undertaking -- you bet! Can it be done, YES! Can it be successful in
reaching people, YES, if we do it right. Even if we reach only 100, that's
100 that we have helped.
What would it take to do it? A lot of
dedicated men and women willing to spend time organizing at the state and city level. Plus a bunch of men
and women to join the Journey as we go along. I think support groups
in each community would love to host us and the doctors would readily agree
to meet with us along the way.
What funds would it take? Since each of us would be paying our own way, the
overall cost would be not be too bad to get the show on the road. The work
putting it together would be horrendous! The cost of materials that we'd want to distribute everyplace we go might amount to a sum of money.
Sponsors, maybe, but with no strings attached -- it is our show.
Just my thoughts on this first day of the year 2000 and part of what I
would like to do someday. Dedication to helping more and more men across the nation is my goal.
Don Cooley owns and manages a group of prostate cancer e-mail lists serving North America and Europe. Don's prostate help pages with mailing lists are at http://www.prostate-help.com/ Don's e-mail is [email protected]
E-mail [email protected]