By Wendella Davidson 

CANADA-BASED Guyanese Dwayne Butters is on a mission to advocate for a collective effort in bringing awareness about the need for early detection of prostate cancer, one of the most common types of cancer among men.
The prostate is a small walnut-shaped gland in men that produces the seminal fluid that nourishes and transports sperm.

Butters, whose father James Courtney Butters, was diagnosed in 2003 at 47 years of age, says he is championing the fight in being actively involved by starting the conversation on prostate cancer to help others battling the disease.
In his quest to achieve his goal, Butters founded the James Courtney Butters Cancer

Awareness Network, for which he is the executive director. The ultimate goal of the initiative is to bring as many men as possible battling prostate cancer, supporting loved ones, cancer advocates and policymakers in one space, thus creating a unique opportunity to exchange ideas and share challenges to craft a dynamic solution and action plan to support the awareness of prostate cancer in Guyana.

Speaking at a symposium held at the Roraima Duke Lodge, Duke Street, Kingston that was hosted by Guyana Telephone and Telegraph to kick-start its Pinktober 2019 Calendar of Events, Butters remarked, “They say life begins at 40. It is on my 40th birthday, I want to begin the conversation on prostate cancer in Guyana and advocate for the collective effort in bringing awareness to this plague to help early detection. I am championing this fight by being actively involved by starting the conversation on prostate cancer, with the goal of helping others battling this disease.”

According to him, during the early days and months of his father’s diagnosis, denial seemed to be his [Dwayne’s] best escape route and coping mechanism. “I was too young to understand the magnitude of what prostate cancer was and how this news would affect my dad’s life, my life and our family. My knowledge about prostate cancer was minimal and I was scared to even research this disease, as I didn’t want to face reality and see the gloom and doom ahead. But my father’s resilience, tenacity and grit to fight this disease and to prepare us for the journey ahead, brought the silver linen in my dark cloud. He sought medical intervention, with both a positive approach and outlook,” he added.
Continuing, he said that the journey was long and was nowhere close to being easy, but that he could stand before the audience and say we persevered.

Butters posited that if his father and the rest of the family can do it, so can all other men and families battling prostate cancer.

“Sixteen years later, after his diagnosis, I have taken up the challenge to share my father’s success in fighting and winning the battle. The mortar that cemented his successful battle was his personal will to survive. I see his story as a testimony that early detection and awareness can save generations for young men, one at a time,” he declared.

Alluding to his home country, Guyana, Butters said that here the cancer landscape has been dominated by the discourse on breast cancer, but argued that while breast cancer is arguably the leading cause of cancer deaths worldwide, prostate cancer deserves an equal platform.
“Prostate cancer is the most common cancer to affect men. With one in seven men being diagnosed with the disease in their lifetime, the threat of prostate cancer for men is far greater than is commonly thought.”
He added that even more alarming, is that over the last few years younger men have been diagnosed with prostate cancer. Prostate cancer may affect many different parts of your life. Often referred to as “couple’s cancer” because it affects not only the man but also his partner, one of the negative externalities of prostate cancer, he pointed out, while adding that family dynamics and role changes tend to occur. Many men, when diagnosed, tend to feel isolated and stigmatised and tend to think they are in the fight alone.
Butters, who is originally from the Stewartville, a village on the West Coast of Demerara, said he attended the Stewartville Nursery and Primary Schools before going on to Leonora Secondary.

The second of five siblings said he later enrolled at the Government Technical Institute (GTI) before going on to the University of Guyana.

Before migrating to Canada in 2015, Butters said he worked for seven years as a Counsellor/Tester for HIV at the Guyana HIV/AID Reduction and Prevention Project, and at the Cheddi Jagan International Airport as an aviation security officer. His mom, Lynette, still lives in the family house at Stewartville, West Coast Demerara, while his dad lives in Atlanta, Georgia.