NEXT US TOO GENERAL MEETING - TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 12, 2002
CAMPUS AUDITORIUM, WILLIAM OSLER HEALTH CENTRE, 7:00 - 9:00 P.M.
BRAMPTON MEMORIAL HOSPITAL, 20 LYNCH STREET, BRAMPTON, ONTARIO.

NOVEMBER 12 - DR. JUANITA CROOK - "PROSTATE BRACHYTHERAPY: HOPE OR HYPE?"
Dr. Juanita M. Crook is Associate Professor of Radiation Oncology, University of Toronto and Head, Prostate Brachytherapy Program, University Health Network, Princess Margaret Hospital. Dr. Crook is a speaker of international repute and a strong supporter of Us Too! Brampton. Her talk will provide comprehensive answers on Brachytherapy: "What is Brachytherapy?" "How is it done?" "Who is it appropriate for?" "What are the side effects?" "How well does it work?" "How do we compare it with surgery?".
Check Dr. Crook's web site, http://www.brachy4u.ca for the latest on this promising treatment alternative.

OCTOBER 8 - DR. STANLEY FLAX
A standing room crowd of 90 members, wives and guests were treated to an excellent presentation by Dr. Stanley Flax, resident urology expert at the William Osler Health Center, Brampton. The multimedia presentation on laparoscopic surgical procedures was well received by those attending.
Dr. Flax presented in detail the procedure for laparoscopic surgery and went on to show us the 'Operating Table of the Future' and advances in hi-tech robotic surgery.
To conclude a very successful evening Ian Smith gave a graphic account of his two-week trek across England to promote early PSA testing in both England and Canada.

UPCOMING MEETINGS
On December 10, we hope to spend an entertaining evening with Sandy Hawley. Details are being finalized and we will keep you posted. This meeting is also our Christmas Social, which this year will be sponsored by Us Too! Brampton. Marg Butterly 905-454-4237 will be looking for help with this event.
The Honourable Tony Clement, the M.P.P. for Brampton West - Mississauga and the Minister of Health and Long-term Care for Ontario is still considering our request that he make an appearance at our January 14 meeting.
Mr. Alex Isbister, M.S.W., who was highly recommended to us by other support groups, will speak on Cancer and Emotion at our meeting on February 11.
Dr. Mohammed Ibrahim from Brampton Memorial Hospital will host an Open Forum on March 11 to field your questions about Prostate Cancer.
The April, May and June meetings are under construction, but we hope to present top speakers on the topics of cryosurgery, radiation and hormonal therapy. Feel free to suggest potential speakers to the Speakers' Committee: Fred Norris, Don Grant, Gerry Brunjes or the newest member of the committee, Mukul Luthra.

"US TOO" PROMOTIONAL SHIRTS & HATS
We will be purchasing more Us Too! - Brampton shirts and hats shortly. These top-quality items are available to members at subsidized prices of $30 and $5 respectively. To order a shirt or a hat, contact Don Grant at (905) 793-7376, or e-mail dongrantmon@sympatico.ca.
 

NEW MEMBERS
The November New Member meeting will be held at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, November 26 in the auditorium. A total of nine new members were welcomed in October, so for the first time we will not list all their names! With the population of Brampton predicted to grow by about 13,500 per year for the next few years, our membership will unfortunately continue to swell at a rapid pace. Would that we could lose our members to good health at the same rate.
- Morris Rambout, New Member Coordinator, (905) 793-8843, mrambout@idirect.com

FINANCES
Since the October newsletter was published, we have carried on with the projects mentioned then:
(1) The computer projector that we purchased with donations from the Kiwanis Club of Brampton and AstraZeneca proved its worth at both the General Meeting on October 8 and the New Member Meeting on October 22.
(2) With Ian Smith back from his stroll across England, Us Too! will donate $1,000 to the William Osler Hospital Foundation in his honour. Ian raised more than $2,000 in total for the Foundation. Well done Ian!
(3) We are continuing the effort to register Us Too! as a Charity for income tax purposes.
(4) We continue to work toward opening a Prostate Cancer information room in Brampton.
(5) Bramalea Live Theatre is staging a special performance of Noel Coward's "Blythe Spirit" at Cyril Clarke Library on Thursday, March 19th, 2003 for Us Too! Brampton. The venue is a well constructed theatre located under the library and featuring a raised stage and stadium-style seating with no blind spots. There is ample parking,
Since this performance is being staged especially for us, all the theatre seating is ours to sell, with net proceeds going to Us Too! The committee has decided to sell the tickets for $15 each.
We have a total of 186 seats available, which can be increased to 200 if necessary. In addition, the theatre can provide light refreshments, with the profits going to Us Too!
We will need more volunteers to help make this another great theatre event. Tilly Netherton and Frank Connolly have already volunteered to start the Theatre Committee.
(6) The 2002 - 2003 Subscription of $10 has been due and payable since September 1. So far, fewer than 80 of our 175 active members have paid. We spend more than $10 per member just generating and distributing this newsletter, never mind the other activities that are carried on all year long. If you are unable to pay at a meeting, please remit cheques payable to Us Too! Brampton c/o Gerry Brunjes, 8 Duke Road, Brampton, ON L6T 3K1.
- Gerry Brunjes, Finance, (905) 793-3043, brunjes@idirect.com

AWARENESS REPORT
Ian Smith has returned from walking across England to increase awareness of Prostate Cancer in both Canada and England. Ian has a number of Awareness events planned; details to come.
As always, he needs volunteers to assist with each of these events. You will meet some very interesting people by helping out here. For more information, contact
Ian Smith, Awareness Coordinator (905) 454-3880, iclacewood@globalserve.net

SURGICAL PATIENT CARE TEAM
At the invitation of Sandie Seaman, of the Surgical Patient Care Team at William Osler Health Centre Doug Hancock attended his first meeting as a patient representative and gained some valuable experience while offering the professional health care members a different view of the hospital. Doug added the hot issue of free PSA testing at the hospital to the "Wish List" maintained by the Team.
Doug and Morris Rambout will continue to attend these monthly meetings and will keep up us advised of items that concern Prostate Cancer patients and their families. Perhaps we will see the return of free PSA testing in the near future.
For more information - Doug Hancock, Visitation, (905) 451-3979, thehancockfamily@sympatico.ca

THE US TOO! PROSTATE CANCER COLLECTION
A ceremony honoring the donation of this important collection was held at the Brampton Public Library's Chinguacousy Resource Branch on 8th October. Cynthia Toniolo, Library Branch Manager accepted the collection from George Deshpande and Chairman Fred Norris. (See the photos on our web site www.ustoo-brampton.com.)
These materials will be readily available to anyone who needs them through the Consumer Health Center of the Chinguacousy Resource Branch. If any desired item is not on hand at the Brampton Public Library branch most convenient to you, it will be located and brought to that location on request.
Our web site now includes a link to the Brampton Public Library, and the Library's web site includes a reciprocal link to the Us Too! Brampton web site. Ain't technology grand!? For additional information, contact
George Deshpande, Librarian, (905) 793-7561, 15898@ican.net

THE US TOO! BRAMPTON 2003 CHARITY GOLF TOURNAMENT
It's never too early to start thinking about the NEXT Us Too! Charity Golf Tournament, to be held in June, 2003. To become part of a very dynamic committee, please contact the Coordinator:
Morris Rambout, Golf Committee Coordinator, (905) 793-8843, mrambout@idirect.com

CHAIRMAN'S MESSAGE
Fred Norris has returned from a well-deserved if overly expensive vacation in England with family members. He has been extremely busy since his return but his thoughts will appear in this space in the December issue.
- Fred Norris, Chairman, (905) 877-8092, fred.norris@sympatico.ca

"PARTNERS" - WE (ALMOST) HAVE "PARTNERS"
The ladies' group to be called "Partners" is about to become a reality. Marg Butterly has offered her home for the first meeting. We will advise you of the date.
To repeat ourselves yet again, there are many ways to help: Support the spouses of the recently diagnosed. Visit & support members in need and their families. Share the refreshment duties at monthly meetings. Help organize social nights. Volunteer at our awareness, theatre and golf events. And most importantly, help during the sickness of a member.
We truly have the strongest group of partners that we have ever had and I look forward to chairing the first meeting. Your thoughts and participation would be greatly appreciated.
- Don Grant, Member Relations, (905) 793-7376, dongrantmon@sympatico.ca

OUR NEW WEB SITE IS ON-LINE - www.ustoo-brampton.com
Mukul Luthra and Don Grant continue to maintain and update the web site's contents, and they welcome suggestions and contributions from you. Check the web site frequently for more of Mukul's great photos of our various awareness events.
Contact Mukul Luthra, Multimedia, (905) 873-8367, wftech@pacific.net.sg.

TORONTO REGIONAL SUPPORT GROUPS MEET AGAIN
On November 18, Fred Norris and Don Grant as representatives of Us Too! Brampton will meet with their counterparts from other groups in the Greater Toronto area for a second time. The objective of this "super group" is to share information, resources and expertise so that all area support groups can serve their members as efficiently and effectively as possible.
Items on the agenda so far include: PSA testing in Ontario, Group problems, "Living Proof" and Information to New Members.

FEEL FREE TO CONTRIBUTE
We invite you to submit articles, letters, beefs, bouquets, humour or any other thought-starter to the Newsletter. Until somebody starts contributing some jokes, you will continue to be stuck with more from my private stock:
Irishman's Dream Gone Horribly Wrong:
Paddy and Murphy were marooned in an open boat in the middle of the Pacific Ocean when an ancient oil lamp floated up beside them.
Paddy said "Maybe if you rub it hard enough a genie will appear!" and sure enough a genie appeared and said "You may have one wish!".
So Murphy said "I wish that all the sea was turned to beer!" and in a flash, the whole of the sea turned to beer and the genie had vanished.
For a long while, all that could be heard was the lapping of beer. Then Paddy said "Nice one, Murphy!".
"What?" said Murphy.
Paddy replied: "Now we're going to have to pee in the boat!"

WITH A LOT OF HELP FROM OUR FRIENDS
Helen Gardiner, the friendly lady who has brewed our coffee and set out the refreshments at each monthly meeting over the last few years, is retiring. We thank Helen for her long service in this and other roles. We welcome Shirley Hancock and Frank Connolly who will take over the refreshment duties until the "Partners" group is set up.
You have probably met Norm Lingard and Ken & Marion MacDonald among other volunteers, while looking for your name tag at the monthly meetings. Their assistance is greatly appreciated, especially since we changed to setting the tags out in alphabetical order instead of by treatment code.
Finally, continuing thanks to Stew Cornell and his corps of Telephone Callers, who work so hard to remind us all of the General Meeting every month and to check up on each member's well-being. These are dedicated individuals who believe strongly in Us Too!'s objective of supporting our members.