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  • During the month of November we’re proud to be joining forces with our friends over at Dundas and Carlaw to form the ultimate Movember team. Sunday November 1st will be the official launch and the first of many events to come in support of Movember. Join us at Dundas and Carlaw on the 1st for the Shave-Off and BBQ to get things started.

    This year’s goal is to raise $10,000. Once we’ve hit that amount one of our trainers and team captain, Darrel Mancini, will be getting a tattoo of Tom Selleck. Not only can you donate money to help a great cause but you’ll be helping Mr.Sellek find his new home somewhere on Darrel’s body.

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    Stay tuned for more details. In the mean time feel free to speak to the front desk for information on how to join the team or make a donation.

    Check out our team page and the event page for the Shave-Off.

    To learn a bit more about why we’re participating in Movember check out our team captain’s story below.

    Hi I’m Darrel,

    This year will mark the second year I will be participating in the Movember campaign and raising money for men’s health awareness by co-leading the “Primal Gym and Dundas & Carlaw team”. Now, this by no means is a big deal. You probably have tons of friends or relatives that are doing it too for various reasons. But, why am I doing it? Why should you care?

    Last February I started to get a dull soreness in my lower abdominal area. I remember it quite clearly; it was a Sunday morning and I had been out drinking the night before, so I thought it was more of a hangover side effect. Honestly, I didn’t pay much attention. A couple days went by and it didn’t subside, and the soreness traveled further south to my testicle, the right one to be exact. When I felt around I could feel a small lump that wasn’t there before.

    So like anyone nowadays, I searched the Internet for possible answers. What came up wasn’t good. These were possible symptoms of Testicular Cancer. At this point, I was sure of the worst. My father had died 5 years earlier from brain cancer and my grandfather (my dads dad) died 5 years before him of lung cancer, so I feared I was next. Genetics are a bitch, aren’t they? I read that it was very treatable and if caught early survival rates were extremely high. So with all that knowledge, you’d think I would have went to my doctor the next day, right? That with all of these Movember campaigns over the years telling us guys to get checked out, I would, right? I’d like to say that I did, but honestly, I’d be lying. 2 weeks. I kept it to myself for two weeks, lost sleep for two weeks, played out every bad situation in my head for two weeks. What if it spread? What if I had to do chemotherapy and radiation? I knew based on family history I would most likely get cancer at some point in my life, but at 28?…

    I was scared. I saw what cancer did to my father; turned a once strong man, someone I looked up to and sought advice on everything in my life… and at the end he could barely form sentences. I don’t even know if he could actually hear or understand me when I told him I loved him before he died. Cancer is a motherfucker, and I didn’t want anything to do with it. And yet, I didn’t want to know if I had it or not.

    Finally, I got up the courage to speak to one of my clients who is a doctor and told him about what I was going through. He said I should go get it checked out right away, it could be just a benign lump or cyst and that I might be worrying over nothing.  He told me to go to the walk in clinic around the corner from my apartment after our session.So I did. Honestly, it was quite awkward and embarrassing. I didn’t know this guy, and he was feeling my balls? Not my ideal evening. He felt around for about a minute and said he didn’t feel anything. I tried to point it out to him again and he said it was probably nothing, but to be safe he gave me a referral to get an ultrasound. So with this news in mind, I felt relieved.

    I slept well that night and waited a couple days to get the ultrasound; because, hey, a doctor thought it was nothing to be concerned about, why should I? Well, he was wrong and I’m an idiot. During the ultrasound (which was even more awkward, this time with lube and a handheld machine), the tech said he thought he found something but couldn’t say what. I went home and a of couple hours later received a call from my GP’s office wanting to see me early the next morning, and at that point I knew I was not going to get good news.

    My doctor told me that they found a tumor (or looked like one) and that he already booked an appointment with an Urologist in about an hour. 2 days later, I had my right testicle removed and a week later I found out that it was indeed cancer. The urologist was actually quite impressed that I found a lump that early on and commented that most guys don’t. This turned out to be goodnews since the cancer didn’t spread.

    As of October 28th 2015 I am still cancer free, but I am not out of the woods yet.  I’ve been told that it is likely to come back (based on the type of tumour) and that I have 5 years until they can say I am cancer free, but the survival rate is 97%.

    This year an estimated 1,000 males will be diagnosed with Testicular Cancer and it’s the most common cancer among males aged 15-29. So, I decided that I want to take my experience and hopefully inspire other dudes to take their health seriously and get checked out if something feels wrong. I’ve had a couple friends say that because of me they went to the doctor to get checked out.  I hope my story can inspire others, because catching it early is imperative.

    This year I want to raise a lot more than I did last year, which was $850. I have partnered with Primal Gym and my favourite Bar/ Coffee shop, Dundas & Carlaw to build a team, hold two events this month and raise $10,000. As a motivation incentive to my team mates and donors I have volunteered to get a tattoo of the man with one of the most iconic and epic mustaches of all time, Tom Selleck.

    If you want to donate or attend one of the events, please check out the following Mo-Spaces:

    My page

    Team page

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