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September 13. 2006
Miracles Club Celebrates
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7:30PM
ARLENE S C H N ITZE R CONCERT HALL
S arah B i . o i
nt AI' he
P ortland O bserver
Joyce Menefee joins Miracles Club cochair Harry Winston and Valerie
Richards outside the Miracles Club at 4069 N.E. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.
The greatest tap
dancer ever to lace up
a pair of tap shoes"
- GREGORY HINES
continued
from Front
have M iracles in order to socialize with
drug free people. We had to go to
predom inantly white com m unities.”
F o r m an y , lik e J u n io r G ib so n ,
M iracles offers a therapeutic com m u­
nity. Gibson used drugs and alcohol for
nearly 40 years before attending NA
m eetings when the club first opened in
his community. He has since m oved to
a home in northw est Portland, but never
considered another place to aid in his
recovery.
M iracles is w here Gibson, and others
like him, go in the face o f adversity.
W ithout the club, he know s how easy it
would be to simply get high or start
drinking instead.
“W e’re all addicted and when we talk
to one another w e’re really talking to
ourselves,” he said, “constantly rem ind­
ing ourselves that we can ’t drink and
use.”
Saturday’s 12th Anniversary Celebra­
tion will include a num ber o f organiza­
tions in support o f M iracles and video
p re se n ta tio n s o f past e v e n ts, plus
snacks, dancing and a perform ance by
the Gospel group Light. Tickets for are
$5. For more information, contact the
club at 503-249-8559.
On Leadership’s Path
continued
Subscribe online! www.whitebird.org
from Front
“He was always good at opening his
door,” she said.
Watkins studied law at Lewis and Clark
and passed the bar exam in 1996. She met
Freeman while serving as a certified law
clerk at Juvenile Rights Project, a public
family law firm representing children and
their parents.
The young lawyer said she w asn't al­
ways thrilled by Freeman’s persistent ad­
vice, but knew he had good intentions.
W atkins’ earliest inspiration to suc­
ceed in life came at home, through the
grandmother who raised her, Ruth Watkins.
The elder Watkins brought up her grand­
daughter in their northeast Woodlawn
neighborhood home while working as a
maid for Evelyn Margaret Collins, the north
Portland childcare provider known by an
entire community as Miss Collins.
“She was no joke on the homework and
the studies,” Watkins said.
As a young woman, Watkins attended
her debutant ball and became the first on
both sides of her family to receive a col­
lege degree.
Her grandmother died of cancer during
W atkins’ freshman year at OSU, but
W atkins' goal is to give back to others in
her honor.
“How flattering to grow up, go to school,
practice law here, and shape what hap­
pens in this community by being a public
servant,” she said.
For more information about Watkins'
campaign, call 503-735-9182.
Prostate Cancer Awareness
Smooth Jazz Is Here!
Portland's Only Smooth Jazz Station
kijz.cotn
Knowledge is Power
by
L arry L ucas
to lymph nodes or other vital organs.
There are two main screening tests
doctors use to detect pros­
tate cancer: digital rectal ex­
amination (DRE) and a blood
test called the prostate-spe­
cific antigen (PS A ) test. Now,
I know these screening tests
don’t sound like a day at the
park. But your doctor is there
to help make them as quick,
painless and worry-free as
possible. In fact, the DRE
exam takes less time than
you'll spend reading this sen­
tence.
The American Cancer Society rec­
ommends that both the PSA and DRE
should be offered annually, begin­
ning at age 50, to men who have at
least a 10-year life expectancy. Men at
high risk, such as African Americans
and those with a strong family history
of prostate cancer, should begin test­
ing at age 45.
In a recent interview with ABC
News, Dr. Isamettin Aral of Staten
Island University Hospital said, “I
think it is important to share with the
patient what you're finding in the ex­
amination. And also important is just
because there is a lump or a swelling,
it doesn't mean...[that] there is a tu­
mor in the prostate. It just means we
are going to have to do a little more
specific testing, probably a biopsy."
What happens if a biopsy reveals
that you have prostate cancer? In
general, the earlier the cancer is de­
tected. the more likely it is that you'll
remain disease-free. Because approxi­
mately 90 percent of all prostate can­
cers are detected in the early stages,
the cure rate is very hig h -n early 1(X)
percent of men diagnosed a, this stage
will be disease-free after five years,
according to the Prostate Cancer
Foundation. This is particularly re­
markable when you consider that in
the 1970s only 67 percent of men diag­
nosed with local or regional prostate
cancer were disease-free after five
years.
Som etim es, igno­
rance is bliss - like
when it comes to your
m other-in-law 's “se­
cret recipe.” But not
when w e’re talking
about your health. As
a nine-year survivor of
prostate cancer, I’m
here to tell you that
when it comes to the
health of your pros­
tate, ignorance can be life threatening.
S eptem ber is Prostate C ancer
Awareness month and according to
the National Cancer Institute, prostate
cancer is the second most common
type of cancer among men in this coun­
try. Only skin cancer is more common.
Out of every three men who are diag­
nosed with cancer each year, one is
diagnosed with prostate cancer.
Prostate health is particularly im­
portant for African-American men.
Death rates for this cancer are nearly
two-and-a-half times higher in Afri­
can-American men than white men,
according to the National Institutes of
Health (NIH), making this disease the
most common cancer and the second
leading cause of cancer death in black
men.
Why is this? One reason suggested
by the American Cancer Society is
African-Americans are more likely to
be diagnosed later, with more advanced
cancer, which is harder to treat and is
often more lethal. That’s why it is so
important to get tested regularly -
through regular visits to your doctor.
These screening tests can find cancer
early when it's most treatable.
Lots of people - especially us men
- would rather take comfort in the fact
that they “feel fine" than subject them­
selves to an annual physical. But it’s
that annual physical that saved my
life; I had no symptoms and was enjoy­
ing activities like golf with no problem.
Through prostate screening tests that
Larry Lucas is the deputy vice presi­
are apart of my regular physicals, I was
fortunate enough to catch the cancer dent f o r Pharm aceutical Research
in the early stages, before it had spread and M anufacturers o f America.