WHAT started out as a few guys riding postie bikes about the place has turned into a major men\u2019s health campaign.<\/p>\n
Known as the Male Bag Foundation, the effort recently resulted in the donation of a car to help get patients into the Base Hospital for prostate cancer tests.<\/p>\n
AFL great and prostate cancer survivor, David Parkin, is the organisation\u2019s patron and he was at Ballarat Health Service for the official handover of a new Nissan X Trail last Friday.<\/p>\n
\u201cA couple of blokes decided to ride across Australia on postie\u2019s motorbikes five, six, years ago and that became a group of 30,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI rode across on learners plates, but these blokes raised half-a-million dollars from Perth to Melbourne and gave it to the Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia.\u201d<\/p>\n
The money was subsequently used on providing less invasive prostate cancer testing in regional areas.<\/p>\n
Previously a more invasive transrectal biopsy was only available in the capital cities. As a result of Mail Bag\u2019s efforts, there are now nine transperineal biopsy devices in regional centres like Ballarat.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe only place you could do biopsies in those days was in public hospitals in Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide, places like that,\u201d Mr Parkin said. \u201cThey were done though the bowel and every third of fourth person got an infection.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe transperineal machine goes around the outside to get exactly the same result. We decided that we had to help men in rural and regional Australia, and it just happened that Ballarat was the first connection and choice. We put a transperineal machine into Ballarat and it\u2019s done hundreds and hundreds of tests now with minimal chance of getting an infection but getting the same result.\u201d<\/p>\n
The better tests weren\u2019t enough though. Patients requiring the improved transperineal biopsies still needed to get to BHS for the procedure.<\/p>\n
When undergoing the test, patients were unable to drive themselves there and back and many didn\u2019t have decent transport options in the first place.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s where Mail Bag member and namesake of the Nissan dealership on the corner of Creswick Road and Howitt Street, Wendouree, Peter Stevens and his family stepped in.<\/p>\n
Mr Stevens had recently sold out of the business that bares his name, but was still keen to help out.<\/p>\n
\u201cBallarat Health Service have been wanting to get a vehicle for a couple of years to bring the patients in for treatment,\u201d he said. \u201cThe Stevens family as a whole decided to make a donation to the Mail Bag Foundation and they in turn have bought the vehicle and handed it over today.\u201d<\/p>\n
As the challenge of prostate cancer is ongoing, so is the effort of Mail Bag to provide transperineal biopsy machines to regional and rural patients.<\/p>\n
Mr Parkin said the next place they were targeting was Geelong.<\/p>\n
\u201cWould you believe Geelong still haven\u2019t got one of these machines?\u201d he said. \u201cThis year we\u2019re riding in October around the Bellarine and that area to help raise the funds that they need to buy that machine.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
WHAT started out as a few guys riding postie bikes about the place has turned into a major men\u2019s health campaign. Known as the Male Bag Foundation, the effort recently resulted in the donation of a car to help get patients into the Base Hospital for prostate cancer tests. AFL great and prostate cancer survivor, […]<\/p>\n