An area cancer support group is hoping to get people to fill the seats of the Bertha Frank Performing Arts Center in Morton to hear how to improve their health.
Us TOO Peoria Prostate Cancer Support Group is hosting a free lecture, “Treatments for Prostate Cancer and Lifestyle Suggestions to Improve General Health,” Sept. 28.
George Melton, co-chairman of Us TOO Peoria, said the group’s usual format is to have a sharing time, but they also often bring in guest doctors to speak.
Dr. Mark Moyad from the University of Michigan Medical Center will address treatments for prostate cancer, as well as lifestyle suggestions that could improve general health such as nutrition and disease prevention.
Moyad has written more than 100 medical articles, authored or coauthored six books and is the editor-in-chief for a medical journal on preventive and alternative medicine.
Moyad has also maintained a consulting practice on complimentary medicine for the past 12 years.
“He had a degree in public health before his urology degree. He’s very interested in telling you things to keep you healthy and mixes in things about cancer diagnosis, treatment and complications,” Melton said.
Moyad spoke at a similar event at Bertha Frank two years ago and Melton said they had such a good turnout, the support group wanted to bring him back.
“One of our members, Jerry Young, is from Morton and connected with the chamber of commerce. They got behind the event and provided the great meeting facility for us,” Melton said.
Us TOO’s regular meetings are held every other month at Proctor Hospital professional building in Peoria.
“This is not just for cancer survivors, but also for the general public about what he has to say about staying healthy. Last time we had the question and answers section, he was in no hurry to leave and stayed around to answer every last question,” Melton said.
With most of the guest speakers the group schedules, Melton said a common thread runs through with the members after the talk — sharing experiences.
Melton said recently they were scheduled to have a speaker from Indiana talk about proton beam therapy, which is a new therapy they only perform in three places in the United States.
“He was supposed to fly in with his own plane and couldn’t because of the bad weather. We happened to have four people in our group who had been treated with proton beams in California, Texas and Indiana and they became our plan B,” Melton said.
