FORMER PGA TOUR and Champions Tour player Jim Colbert has an important and potentially life-saving message for men age 40 and older: get screened annually for prostate cancer. It’s simple, quick and painless.
“Early detection is the key,” Colbert told me earlier this week. “There’s no reason to die from this disease in this day and age.”
Colbert is a prostate cancer survivor. The 68-year-old golf analyst saw his doctor at the urging of good friend Arnold Palmer in the mid 1990s shortly after Palmer was diagnosed with prostate cancer.
Prostate cancer affects one in six men. Approximately 192,000 will be diagnosed with the disease this year. Colbert is working with Depend and ZERO: The Project to End Prostate Cancer to launch a four-month prostate cancer awareness program culminating with National Prostate Cancer Awareness Month in September.
I also talked to Colbert about the U.S. Open at Bethpage, where he was set to do commentary for DIRECTV.
−The Armchair Golfer
Thanks, Neil, for carrying this message. I often feel like walking up to every adult male on the street and ask when they last had the test(s) for prostate cancer. One is a blood test they can add to your current tests and other is a five second physician's test. They both can and will save your life.
I had prostate cancer about fifteen years ago and detected it early enough to have it removed safely and without serious complications.
There is a pretty good chance if a man lives long enough, he will contract prostate cancer, but he does not have to die from it.
Thanks, Vince. Glad to hear you had early detection of your prostate cancer — and were cured — a great message to pass along to other men.