Men, Women And Children Run In Prost8K To Spread Awareness

Hundreds of people woke up early Sunday morning, starting Father's Day by fighting the "man's disease."

The Oregon Urology Institute's fourth annual "Prost8K" race began at 8 AM. Men, women and children participated while dozens of others holding signs cheered on love ones from the sidelines.

The event is held every year as a way to spread awareness of prostate cancer and underline the importance of early screening. According to OUI, prostate cancer is. They want to make the color "blue" for prostate cancer just as representative as the color "pink" is to breast cancer awareness.

"Prostate cancer is the breast cancer for men," said Stephanie Kerns from OUI. "Every five minutes, two people are diagnosed with it."

George Davis was one of those people. Today, though, he was not only a runner but a survivor. Davis was wearing a blue shirt while he raced Sunday to show off his strength and the feat he was able to once overcome.

"It's a celebration of just, the great accomplishment that I've done, just to be out here and be healthy and be able to run and I'm still fairly young so I have my whole life ahead of me," he said.

Davis, a father of two sons, told NewsSource 16 it was a great way to kick off Father's Day.

"I have two sons, one in the Marines who has been in Afghanistan, he's going back, and they both wished me a Happy Fathers Day. And they are proud of me," he said.

In 2011, the Oregon Urology Institute was able to offer hundreds of men free prostate screenings at Valley River Center. They said they plan to do it again later this summer.