The moment Dr. Kenneth Poon strode across the waiting room and shook my hand, I knew it was bad news.
The gentle, hopeful eyes of the caring urologist surgeon displayed a sense of loss this day. He sat with me in his office and officially rendered the verdict: “You have prostate cancer.”
He also said I wouldn’t remember most of what he said next, and he was right.
What I do recall are tears welling up in my eyes at the shock of it all. I had no immediate family history of prostate cancer. And I had lived a life of adventure: solo hikes across the Northwest Territories, white-water canoe trips down remote B.C. rivers, cage-diving for great white sharks in Mexico. I even slipped into the prestigious New York-based Explorers Club.
None of that made a damn bit of difference now. A far greater challenge lay ahead.
One in seven men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer during their lifetime.
Look around the office, think about your friends and family. Who will be next?
