That's the message Colbert is telling anyone who will listen as he and other former professional athletes tackle the disease head on during a new four-month campaign sponsored by Depend and ZERO to end prostate cancer.
"Depend makes a product that anyone with prostate cancer is familiar with and has used. And anytime somebody buys the product, part of the money goes to ZERO to help end prostate cancer."
Colbert, who is a 13-year prostate cancer survivor himself, has teamed up with other notables including Ken Griffey Sr., Rod Woodson and Len Dawson to help educate men across the country of the importance of testing, a message Colbert hopes hits home on Father's Day.
"Depend makes a product that anyone associated with prostate cancer is aware about and has probably used," Colbert said this week during an interview with The Mercury.
Colbert said the fight against prostate cancer starts with awareness — men helping men.
"We want to get every man 40-years-old or older to get a physical, to have a blood test," he said. "You don't have to do anything, at first, but just take a blood test. Depending on those numbers, you may have to follow up with other tests. But it just starts with a blood test and a lot of people can be ruled out by just doing that."
Prostate cancer will affect one out of six men this year, but, as Colbert asserted, can be avoided if detected early through a PSA blood test. That's where ZERO comes in — an organization devoted to fight the disease using a mobile unit that travels the country administering free bloods tests — 90,000 to date.
"Men don't take the physicals. Men don't take the blood tests," said Colbert, who was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 1997. "There is certainly no reason in this day and age to die from prostate cancer. The men need to get out of the closet and get checked.
"But men don't want to talk about it. Women will talk with each other, share stories, help each other out, help each other through some tough times, especially through health issues. But men are so stubborn and don't want to talk about that kind of stuff. But at 40, it is just ridiculous to not be getting an annual physical. They just have to swallow their pride. Nobody should die from this disease."
Colbert, now 70, was unaware of the dangers himself. That was, until golf great Arnold Palmer was diagnosed in 1996.
"I don't know what I would have done. I was the first person Arnold Palmer told that he prostate cancer...I was getting the Arnold Palmer award for player of the year and Arnold came out of his room, we bumped into each other, and said he had cancer," Colbert said. "I didn't know what it was then."
It didn't take long to find out though. Colbert and his family quickly realized that having cancer wasn't just an individual fight, but a fight that affect the entire family.
"When I was diagnosed, my wife and kids were reading everything they could read about it," said Colbert, who is in New York this weekend working with DirecTV and ESPN on coverage of the U.S. Open. "I think they were more scared than I was. To families — cancer is a scary word. The automatic thought... 'is that he's dead and it's just a matter of time.' And that's not true. This, caught early, you may not even have a six-week problem. It's amazing what they can do."
