OUR NEXT MEETING IS AT 7:00 P.M., TUESDAY OCTOBER 14, 2003
Back for another appearance is the very popular Dr. Richard Casey, who will discuss "Clinical Trials" with us. Director of The Male Health Centers (TMHC), Dr. Casey has been published extensively.
TMHC has locations in Barrie, Toronto, and Oakville. Using treatment protocols developed by Dr. Casey and other community physicians, TMHC provides excellent care to men with erectile dysfunction and their partners. TMHC also participates in clinical research studies and offers its patients treatments often unavailable anywhere else in Canada.
A reminder that we are now meeting at:
Room #2, The Terry Miller Recreation Center,
1295 Williams Parkway at the southwest corner of Williams Parkway & Bramalea Road,
adjacent to the North Peel Secondary School.
The room is upstairs but is accessible by elevator. Parking is ample and free.
Chairman Fred Norris will miss the October 14th meeting as he will be in hospital for a minor operation. Our thoughts will be with Fred as always.
Vice Chairman Ian Smith will handle the master of ceremonies duties for the evening.
 

SEPTEMBER 9, 2003 - Dr. Stanley Flax
The Terry Miller hall held a record crowd of over 100 members, wives and guests who listened keenly to a highly informative presentation by Dr. Stanley Flax, resident urology expert from the William Osler Health Center, Brampton. Dr. Flax 's presentation "Brachytherapy or Radical?" provided an insight into and a comparison of the two approaches and elaborated on 'SPIRIT'- Surgical Prostatectomy vs Interstitial Radiation Intervention Trial.
As part of his session Dr. Flax responded in detail to numerous questions from the audience, in particular pertaining to second line treatment options. The session proved to be of immense value to all members and of special significance to new members.
Those of you who missed it or wish to review the information will be pleased to learn that the session may be heard or downloaded as MP 3 Streaming Audio on our web site - http://www.ustoo-brampton.com. In addition, an Audio CD of Dr. Flax's presentation will soon be available in the 'Audio Books' section of the Brampton Public Library at the Chinguacousy and Four Corners branches. The CD may also be requested through other library branches. A Library call number will be posted on the web site and published in the Newsletter shortly.
The first evening at our new venue turned out to be a grand success and the best ever season-opening meeting, judging by member turn out and participation.

A MESSAGE FROM THE CHAIR
A roller coaster year!!!
But what satisfaction you the members gave us at our September meeting!
A new venue, a good speaker with an interesting topic and over a hundred of you there to listen and respond to Dr. Flax.
The steering committee were delighted to see it all come to fruition, and we were also grateful to pick up four new volunteers to aid in our cause.
Don Grant and his band of volunteers have worked tirelessly to keep up with the newly diagnosed people. A great effort by everyone and the satisfaction of knowing that you have helped someone over the first shocking hurdle and hopefully demonstrated that indeed there is a light at the end of the tunnel is a great joy to us.
Thank you all for your continued support.
- Fred Norris, Chairman, (905) 877-8092 e-mail fred.norris@sympatico.ca.

2003-2004 GUEST SPEAKERS
Confirmed speakers for the rest of the 2003 - 2004 season:
Tuesday, November 11th - Dr. Robert Bristow from Princess Margaret Hospital will discuss Radiation Oncology & The Genetics of Prostate Cancer.
Tuesday, December 9th. - Our Christmas Social. We still hope to add a speaker to this date as well.
Tuesday January 13, 2004 - To open the New Year, Dr. Mohammed Ibrahim has agreed to host an Open Forum and field your questions about prostate cancer.
Tuesday, April 13th, 2004 - Alex Isbister will return to discuss Cancer and Its Sexual Implications.
Tuesday, May 11th, 2004 - Arlene Dalton, who gave us an excellent yoga demonstration last year, has also agreed to an encore and will discuss "Stress Management" at our meeting.
The Speaker Committee has requests out for some interesting speakers for the February and March meetings. As always, your suggestions are welcome.
Don Grant, Speaker Committee, (905) 793-7376 e-mail dongrantmon@sympatico.ca
 

NEW MEMBER MEETINGS
New Member meetings are held on the fourth Tuesday of each month. The next scheduled meeting will be held between 6:30 p.m. and 8:00 p.m. on Tuesday, October 28. At our September meeting seven new members were on hand!
Four new counselors have been added to the New Member committee to ensure that our one-on-one procedure is followed. Acting New Member Coordinator Don Grant will meet with our new counselors before the next new member meeting.
The New Member meetings are held in Suite 304, 57 Mill Street.
To obtain detailed directions to this location, please contact: Don Grant, Member Relations, at (905) 793-7376 e-mail dongrantmon@sympatico.ca or Sean Butterly, Special Consultant at (905) 454-4237 or Chairman, Fred Norris, at (905) 877-8092 e-mail fred.norris@sympatico.ca

STEERING COMMITTEE NOTES
There have been a number of changes to this year's steering committee:
Several members have resigned for various reasons. Morris Rambout, Frank Connolly and Doug Hancock have supported us by very effectively filling several positions over the years and will be missed.
Fortunately, new volunteers have joined the group and this is most appreciated. Peter Barhydt, Paul Middleton, Mike Loughnan and Carole Smith have come to the rescue.
Peter, Paul and our longtime supporter and friend Tilly Netherton will join the New Member Committee and will be on hand to assist our growing list of recently diagnosed men and their spouses.
Carole has kindly offered to assist in the preparation & management of the name tags. We have also decided to change the name tag format slightly to make the entire process more efficient. We ask for your tolerance and understanding while we get the name tags corrected and printed.
Don Grant, Member Relations, (905) 793-7376 e-mail dongrantmon@sympatico.ca
 

FINANCE
The General Meeting of September 9th saw a record turn out of the membership. It was a great meeting and your committee is extremely delighted by your continued interest (despite SARS), making the struggle to bring you knowledgeable PCa information well worth the effort. (SARS has lost the battle; we have persevered!)
At this time, about 60 members have paid their information subscriptions of $10 for the year. If you are among those who have not yet contributed and wish to continue membership, please send your cheque to me, Gerry Brunjes, 8 Duke Road Bramalea, ON L6T 3K1, (made out to Brampton US TOO!).
Because we are renting the room at The Terry Miller Recreation Center for our general meetings, we are requesting a voluntary $2 contribution at the door to help cover the rental cost. In view of the fact that the parking is free, it ends up costing each member the same amount that we paid at the hospital. Coffee and juice breaks with snacks will continue to be provided free of charge.
With regard to large donations, we have been advised that the CPCN will provide tax deductible receipts on our behalf, but they have placed a minimum of $200 on this transaction. If any of you wish to contribute that much, or can influence your place of business to do so, cheques must be made out to CPCN in accordance with the rules set by Revenue Canada, and then given to me. I will send them on to CPCN with a cover note and they will then issue a cheque to us in turn. There is no administrative fee...just red tape! But your generous contributions will now be tax-deductible.
We are still trying to put together a fund raising committee in order to take advantage of this opportunity. If you are interested in helping with this important effort please contact Fred or myself. As a great community endeavour, this would be very rewarding from a personal contribution point of view.
- Gerry Brunjes, Treasurer, (905) 791-3043, e-mail brunjes@idirect.com.

AWARENESS
Fortinos is still considering a presentation sometime in October or November. They are also considering a Saturday "Information Table" at their Brampton West location.
Similarly, Costco is considering holding an "Information Table" at their new pharmacy in the Brampton store sometime this fall.
Finally, I am waiting for more information from Wally Seeley of the CPCN about a new national PCa awareness campaign that apparently features Red Green of international television fame.
If you wish to help distribute pamphlets to area pharmacies, know of a group that might benefit from a presentation on Prostate Cancer or have an idea for another Awareness event, please contact me.
Ian Smith, Awareness Coordinator, (905) 454-3880, e-mail iclacewood@globalserve.net.

OUR WEB SITE CONTINUES TO EVOLVE - www.ustoo-brampton.com
Check the web site frequently for new items of interest to all. For example, you can now download MP 3 audio presentations by Dr. Stanley Flax ('Brachytherapy or Radical?' - 9 Sept, 2003 ), Tanya Giaquinto ('Nutrition' - March 11, 2003) and Alex Isbister ('Cancer and Emotion' - Feb. 11, 2003).
Contact Mukul Luthra, Multimedia, (905) 873-8367, e-mail wftech@stn.net.

"US TOO!" PROMOTIONAL HATS
We still have a few Us Too! hats in stock at the subsidized price of only $5. See Don Grant at the next General Meeting or telephone (905) 793-7376 to buy yours.