| Last updated at 12:27 AM on 28/02/07 |
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Dr. David Morrison, left, and Norm Fotheringham, P.E.I. Prostate Cancer Support Group, display the information contained in P.E.I.’s first Prostate Cancer Information Kit. The kit contains reliable literature and supportive information for patients and their families to help them at the time of diagnosis and throughout the patient’s treatment and recovery. Guardian photo |
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Information kit designed for prostate cancer patients 
Package unique in Canada offers right information at right time to men diagnosed with disease
ANDREA MACRAE
The Guardian
The day Norm Fotheringham got his diagnosis he knew only one thing about prostate cancer: that it was deadly.
“My brother was dying of prostate cancer. I had my operation in April and he died in June of that same year. I wouldn’t have had my prostate checked without him. So he basically saved my life.”
That was in 1998 in Ontario. Now Fotheringham helps prostate cancer patients on P.E.I. as chairman of the Prostate Cancer Support Group.
It’s his way of giving something back, he says.
On Tuesday, Fotheringham and Dr. David Morrison of the P.E.I Cancer Treatment Centre launched an information kit for men diagnosed with the disease.
The kit, which is unique in Canada, contains the kind of information Fotheringham could have used when he heard the terrifying c-word.
“When I went through it I had nothing,” said Fotheringham.
The two men saw a gap that needed to be filled for newly diagnosed patients, so they spent over a year developing the kit with advice from urologists Dr. Michael Mulligan and Dr. Ian Reid.
It contains an extensive booklet, brochures on diet, emotions, sexuality, treatment options and spirituality.
There’s also contact information for support services and a patient passport for keeping records of test results, medical appointments and radiation therapy.
Dawn Binns, executive director of the P.E.I. division of the Canadian Cancer Society, said sometimes patients don’t even know what questions to ask.
“I think it will help men with prostate cancer have the right information at the right time,” she said.
“It will help them be able to find that information when they have questions and know where to turn for those questions that may not be answered in the kit.”
Radiation oncologist Dr. Ethan Laukkanen said the kit shows patients that someone from this area is there to walk with them and to be there for them.
“They can pick and choose what they like,” he said.
“They can interact with others. They can keep it to themselves. I think it puts the power in the hands of the individual man.”
Dr. Billy Scantlebury said he will use the kits at the men’s health clinic he runs at the Boardwalk Professional Centre.
“To have a tool like this available will just work wonders for us for easing the transition.”
Reid and Mulligan are already handing them out and Fotheringham has heard from four men as a result.
He and Morrison were also contacted by the Canadian Prostate Cancer Network in Lakefield, Ont., which is interested in the package. There’s a possibility it may be used across Canada.
Fotheringham serves as a beacon of hope for cancer patients in another way. On Monday his urologist, Reid, had news for him.
“He said to me, ‘Norm, I don’t need to see you anymore’.”
Fotheringham no longer has to see Reid for an annual PSA blood-screening test. Now when they meet, they’ll be discussing how to help other patients.
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