LA SHAWN: Prostate cancer was on my radar,
not because I was concerned about having prostate cancer,
it was because I knew that Black men
die two-to-one to their counterparts.
And so I knew that this was an issue,
but I never expected it to be a issue of mine.
So I'm 48, healthy,
exercising all the time, eating right.
I've had my annual screenings,
so I had no concerns that I had problems,
but I knew that at this age
I probably should be getting new tests that I never had before.
And I think it was around the time
that we were feeling the pain
from Chadwick Boseman's death from colon cancer.
And so I go to the doctor and I let him know,
"Look, I need to get the colonoscopy
added to my prescription,
as well as the prostate screening.
And he felt that I was too young to have it.
That men should probably have prostate screenings
at age 50 to 55.
So he didn't write the prescription for that.
[♪♪♪]
Something in me told me that you have to keep pushing
to get what you need for your own health,
because what I've learned
through being a state representative
and being on hospital boards
and being on community health boards,
is the science is different
for Black men versus White men.
So I knew that the science that my primary was talking about
was not inclusive of Black health.
The fact that African Americans are 50 percent more likely
to contract prostate cancer
and are more than twice as likely to die from it,
is a huge problem in this community.
I went to a Black doctor that did my colonoscopy
and I made the request,
and immediately he just said, "Okay."
And the prostate screening was done.
BENNETT: The PSA blood test is a very easy test,
not unsimilar to a blood draw
that you would have at your primary care physician
for a blood count or a kidney function study.
PSA is a protein in the prostate in the semen.
It's also a marker for cancer.
If the PSA level rises rapidly
or it rises too high of a level,
then the suspicion of prostate cancer is there.
LA SHAWN: When I got the test results,
I learned that four is normal,
but it should be lower than that.
But then when they say that my tests came back at 12,
we knew I had a problem.
SCHAEFFER: So when I met La Shawn, we talked about
retesting his PSA.
We also talked about a prostate health index.
Those two tests came back elevated,
and so I said next step will be an MRI,
and then based on reviewing the MRI with the radiologist,
we determined that a biopsy was appropriate.
LA SHAWN: After doing the biopsy,
it was confirmed and conclusive that
I had stage-four cancer that was aggressive.
You know, had I listened to
the doctor that told me I was too young
to have prostate screening,
I probably would not have lived to be old enough,
according to science, to even take a prostate exam.
SCHAEFFER: We spent over an hour together talking about ways
that he could treat his prostate cancer,
and that's one of the beauties of our program
at Northwestern Medicine, is that we have the bandwidth
to offer multiple treatment options for our patients.
We decided together to move forward with surgery
and the good news for La Shawn was that this cancer
was contained within his prostate.
Which, in terms of his long-term prognosis
for survival, was really outstanding.
Because that makes cure much more possible.
[♪♪♪]
He was cancer-free for some time,
and La Shawn had approached me and said, you know,
"I want to try to take my case to the public.
I want to show them what I went through,
and I want to make a difference for other men."
And so, what he decided to do, and with his press conference,
was amazing. Very few men are willing to get out there
and show that kind of vulnerability.
He did and that makes him a true champion.
So there's this quote by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.,
and it goes:
And that's what's got it,
my entire journey on beating cancer.
You never know what's going to happen in life,
but you have to have faith
regardless to what comes your way.
I didn't see any stairs,
I just saw cancer,
and so we took the right steps.
And I can't imagine things happening any better.
[♪♪♪]