I was on Fox 13, Good Morning Tampa Bay yesterday. Each year they put me on to promo my Oral Cancer Screening which is tomorrow. Their medical expert, Dr Jo who was part of our segment and I discussed this topic before the show and I explained that aside from the obvious benefits that can come from a front line dentist checking for abnormalities in your mouth for FREE, that most of the people we see at the FREE screenings haven't been to a dentist in FOREVER, so many times the dentist will point out "normal" problems and encourage them to start going to their dentist on a regular basis.
I also told her that at our FREE screenings we average appx 200 people and appx 10 -15 each year are referred on to an ENT potentially saving their lives.
She must have been swayed because she didn't bring the topic up during our segment.
BTW this year I am calling my event FREE CANCER SCREENINGS because I have added Moffitt's Mole Patrol (a 40' skin cancer screening bus complete with 8 doctors and staff) and Prostrate screening via a blood draw. Pepsi has agreed to give out free sodas and hot dogs and Walgreens, in addition to giving up 1/2 of their entire parking lot, will have a tent giving out a "gift bag" to all. I also added the Blood Mobile at the last minute so people can do their part to help Boston and West, Tx.
Yay David
It IS possible to change the world. You have done an amazing job in creating awareness - not just in your neck of the woods but on the other side of the world. It was your push with HPV screening that galavanised Alex and I and put me in the right place at the right time in front of the right people to ensure oral cancer got a mention when gardasil was submitted for the free school vaccination programme for boys.
As a consequence of your constant "banging on" about HPV, our minister for Health mentioned oral cancer in her press release back in January/February when she announced the world first vaccination programme for boys.
Way to go, David!!! Great job with spreading the word about OC. Hope you can educate many more while they are getting screened. Best wishes for a successful event.
Here is the link to David's screening event. Its in Gulfport, FL tomorrow (Sat April 20 from 10-2).
Gulfport OC/Cancer Screenings Here is the link for all OCF's Nationwide OC screening events. Take a look and tell your friends and relatives to get checked. It could save their life!
OC Screening Events 2013
Wonderful effort David! I am sure you have put in a lot of time and energy.
Great Job and keep up the good work!!! Semper-Fi Bob
The Cancer Screenings were Saturday and WOW WOW WOW! We preformed close to 500 screenings in a 4+ hour period. Obviously this was our biggest year ever thanks to the addition of Moffitt's 40' Mole Patrol bus. Oral vs. Skin screenings was about a tie but just their presence brought more people out. Moffitt told me that bringing 8 docs and staff they really thought they were going to be "twiddling our thumbs" but "this was the MOST WE HAVE EVER DONE AT ONE LOCATION!". They have already committed to be back next year and said they will be more prepared. Can't imagine what "more prepared" means since they showed up with a 40' air conditioned bus complete with exam rooms, 8 staff, 2 tents outside the bus for outside screenings and tons of tables and chairs. Both Oral and Moffitt had to cut our registration tables off 1/2 hour before closing and even then we were there almost an hour past our announced end time. Also present was the Regional Manager of Walgreens and he was so impressed with the turnout that he has committed to bring their diagnostic truck next year which preforms 7 different medical tests. I have been trying to get them for years so we'll see if he can deliver.
On the negative side (or positive depending upon how you look at it) we (Oral)referred out 12 people for further evals. Don't know how many Moffitt referred out but I saw tons of people walking away with skin referral sheets in their hands.
On the way positive side a couple came up to me and said that they were so impressed by what we said on TV that they drove down from Brooksville. That's a 2 hour one way drive!
On the WAY negative side was a severe lack of parking. I need to move to a much larger venue but will not due to the commitment Walgreens has always given me. I kidded with their Regional Manager that he needed to build a parking garage on his property for next year. As it was they gave up 1/2 of their entire parking lot and the other half had people fighting for spots. All the surrounding residential streets had cars parked in front of their houses. I'll be knocking on doors for the next few days thanking them and hopefully stopping some complaints to the City. One lady was sooo determined to park in an blocked off area for the volunteers that I thought she was going to bump me with her car. Reason finally kicked in as well as her middle finger and off she went. I needed a Taser.
Maybe I'll add some live music next year to sooth the savage souls?
I can't wait till next year!
Well done, David! You really have the knack for putting together a great OC screening event! Just look how it has grown. What a great community service this event is!
Excellent job!!!
What an Awesome turnout!! And so many people helped by what you do, David! Here's an idea for the over zealous parkers: How about a church lot not too far from Walgreens and maybe get a school bus driver or other volunteer to ferry the parking overload people to and from the OC event? Every year in Knoxville, we have a popular Greek Festival with very little parking but everyone just goes to the church down the road a piece and a bus takes everyone to the Greek Festival. And no third finger problems.
Good idea Anne-Marie, great minds think......
Yesterday I secured the Regions Bank lot across the street from Walgreens as they are not open on Saturdays. They only have about 25 spaces but there is a stop light for safe easy crossings so every bit helps. I also talked to the City about using our Trolley to ferry people back n forth from a City owned ball field about 3 blocks away. That's the closest "thing" that has available parking and the Trolley could make easy loops. I'll have to add more sign holders to direct people but this just might do the trick.
I also stopped by Walgreens to see how much business they lost Saturday only to be hugged by Sandy, their Manager who was a TREMENDIOUS help both before and during the screenings and she said they had a great day sales wise so that was a welcome relief. Also the City has not had any complaints yet from surrounding neighbors so everything has turned out great so far.
David
Amazing activism. You are the Poster Man for the successful oral cancer survivor. From your One and Done track record of beating Stage IV cancer to your work at OCF while still running a business , you offer a much better picture of hope for all the worried newcomers. Not everyone gets a recurrence which it sometimes looks like from posters like me.
More importantly, your screening saves so many lives and helps counter act false a advice from Consumer Reports.
You are the man
Charm
David,
Well done once again! What a terrific turnout and adding the other screenings was a great idea. Like you said, it is both good news/bad news about the referrals, but as we know �early detection saves lives�! The publicity before the event was fantastic to have so many people show up for the screenings and certainly did a lot for �oral cancer awareness�!
David - that was such a great idea to include other inducements to come to the Awareness like the bloodmobile for Boston and the checking for skin cancer, and I'm sure the free sodas helped, too! It's a wonderful opportunity for people to get everything checked all a the same event!! You mentioned music for next year - Well, gotta say that the music at the Chattanooga walk last Saturday was phenomenal!! It really made me want to get up and dance. And some little ones actually did! I used to have a dentist that would allow patients to bring their own music to listen to with their ear buds. Music does have charm to sooth the worried dental patient!
I missed the clip, but good work.