HAMPTON, Va. - Hampton University's Proton Cancer Institute had a long line of men out the front door Saturday morning — waiting to be screen for prostate cancer and learn better ways to get healthy.
The Institute's third annual Prostate Cancer and Men's Health Awareness Fair saw more than 400 sign up in advance, organizers told News 3.
The fair partnered the institute with more than a dozen vendors and saw that men would have the chance to be screened for cancer through a prostate-specific antigen (PSA) test.
Organizers say they hold the fair in September because it's Prostate Cancer Awareness Month and one in eight men will develop prostate cancer during their lives.
“Prostate cancer is 99 percent curable if it’s detected early so we like to have these events just to remind men of screening early," said Tiffany Velez Rodgers, Director of Marketing for the Hampton University Proton Cancer Institute. "If you’re an African American male, be screened at the age of 40. If you’re Caucasian, age of 50.”
Later in the morning, WTKR's April Woodard hosted a panel with several former professional athletes — including Dion Foxx, Billy McMullen, Wali Rainer and Terry and Wayne Kirby, a prostate cancer survivor.
For more information about prostate cancer and men's health, visit hamptonproton.org.