#JUSTGET6 Program Slated To Start During September's National Prostate Cancer Awareness Month

The Prostate Cancer Awareness Project (PCAP) in Manhattan Beach, California, has announced the launch of its #JustGet6 prostate cancer awareness program aimed at dramatically reducing the number of prostate cancer deaths.

Statistics show that 240,000 men are diagnosed with prostate cancer each year and almost 30,000 men die each year from the disease. More than 1.2 million men have died from prostate cancer since President Richard M. Nixon declared the War on Cancer in 1971. There are now almost 2.8 million prostate cancer survivors living in the United States alone.

Over their lifetime, one out of every six men (one in four for African Americans) will have prostate cancer. Prostate cancer is treatable, but only if it is detected early, which means that men need to know their risk, take a simple blood test each year, and then track those test results over time. The #JustGet6 program is about getting men to take their annual prostate cancer blood test and then get 6 more men to do the same. "If we can men and their families engaged in the #JustGet6 program, it won't take long before every man knows about their prostate cancer risk," said Robert Hess, founder of the Prostate Cancer Awareness Project.

Himself a prostate cancer survivor, Robert Hess knows too well the emotional blow when your doctor looks at you and speaks those three agonizing words, "you have cancer." "I was diagnosed with Stage 2 prostate cancer when all of my test results were in the normal range. I was lucky, but so many men aren't, that I decided to create a simple tool that would make a man's prostate cancer risk - and his risk of prostate cancer recurrence, clearly visible," said Robert.

The result is ProstateTracker, a simple internet tool for tracking annual PSA blood test results and making any upward trend - which is a cause for concern - clearly visible.

"The #JustGet6 program gives the 2.8 million prostate cancer survivors living in the US today an early opportunity to Pay it Forward to the following generations so that we move to preventing cancer and not having to deal with it as a chronic disease. Prevention is why we focus our awareness efforts on active events, like our cycling and waking programs," explained Robert Hess.

The PCAP has created special memorial blue poppies for prostate cancer to celebrate the new program. #JustGet6 volunteers can support the program by ordering poppies online at http://thepcap.org/store/products/pcap-paper-poppies/ and handing them out to the people they talk to. Pictures posted to the PCAP's Facebook page will be voted on and the winner will take home a commemorative 64 GB iPod Touch.

The PCAP is committed to reducing the annual prostate cancer death toll through awareness, early detection, and prevention. This approach includes the development and operation of the only Internet prostate cancer early detection system and the creation and support of activities like the Alpine Loop Gran Fondo cycling event, held annually in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia.

Aside from being a prostate cancer survivor, Robert Hess is a business owner, health and wellness advocate, bestselling author, and speaker. After his personal diagnosis in 2002, he made it his mission to educate and inspire others, and to create a simple system to ensure that no man receives a prostate cancer diagnosis when it has moved beyond the effective treatment stage. He has ridden the distance around the world on his bicycle since his treatment and created the Around World Cycling Challenge to inspire other cancer survivors to integrate exercise into their cancer survivor journeys.