Jeff McCready likens his cancer ordeal to a graphic depiction of the invasion of Normandy during World War II.
"I feel like sometimes I'm in a scene in Saving Private Ryan," the 48-year-old Huron man said last week. "I'm the one who made it, and there's a whole lot of dead bodies around."
Understandably, Mr. McCready's reaction is a macho one. But the disease the married father of three boys successfully battled -- breast cancer -- is rarely associated with men and sometimes goes untreated due to unfamiliarity or embarrassment.
"It was very surreal for a while," said Mr. McCready, who in 2004 had pain rolling over in bed and found a lump, for which he immediately sought medical attention.
"You just got to be careful," he added. "You never know."
Mr. McCready has no trouble sharing his story, as he likely will do on Wednesday with about 1,300 women during the fourth annual Girls' Night Out fund-raiser in Sandusky. Organizers of the fund-raiser at Kalahari Resort have a goal to raise more than $35,000 for four cancer-related programs in Huron and Erie counties, including one that deals specifically with breast cancer.
Suggestions to tinge edges of the ubiquitous pink breast cancer awareness ribbon with blue may come up as Mr. McCready again hosts the event's version of Deal or No Deal, with male police officers, firefighters, and executives holding 26 prize cases with up to $2,500. Last year, Mr. McCready recounted his mammogram experience, during which he changed the television channel to ESPN as he was surrounded by the color pink.
"My line last year was I was really happy I didn't have testicular cancer," said Mr. McCready, who was treated with surgery and chemotherapy.
One out of 100 breast cancer cases involves a man, which still is a significant number because it is a common disease, and treatment and survival rates are the same as with women, said Dr. Steven Roshon, an oncologist at North Coast Cancer Care in Sandusky.
About 1,990 new cases of invasive breast cancer will be diagnosed among men in the United States this year, and 450 men will die from the disease, according to the American Cancer Society.
At least 20 percent of male breast cancer is associated with inherited genes, which also increases the risk for prostate and pancreatic cancers, Dr. Roshon said.
"There's not really the public recognition of it," he said. "In general, we encourage women to get mammograms and be aware of lumps."
Even Mr. McCready's wife of nearly 20 years, a radiaion therapist, didn't think the lump he discovered was cancer when she encouraged him to get it checked.
"I was concerned, but I really wasn't too worried about it," Regina McCready said.
Luckily, the tumor had not spread, and Mr. McCready underwent genetic testing to ensure their sons are not at increased risk for cancer. Mr. McCready said he does not share the same sexual identity concern that female breast cancer survivors may undergo after surgery, but he remains aware of his mastectomy scar.
Mr. McCready had a mastectomy to remove his right breast's tissue, and he had a few rounds of chemotherapy. Then he started taking a common hormone treatment, tamoxifen, aimed at lowering the recurrence of breast cancer or having the disease develop in the other breast.
Like many people, Norwalk business owner and fellow breast cancer survivor Sheri Thomas said she was surprised to learn men can get breast cancer after she was diagnosed in 2001 and started doing research.
"It is odd but it makes sense -- everybody has breast tissue," said Ms. Thomas, 39, of Sheri's Coffee House, which has two locations in Norwalk.
Both young boys and girls have a small amount of breast tissue and a few ducts under their nipples. But while female's breast tissue and ducts grow during puberty, when milk-producing glands also form, further growth of male breast tissue is restricted by hormones.
Ironically, Girls' Night Out co-founder Doug Studer said he didn't know Mr. McCready was a cancer survivor when he asked the school fund-raising consultant to put on Deal or No Deal for last year's cancer fund-raiser. Mr. McCready uses a version of the game with students when he visits schools.
Mr. Studer and his wife, Gretchen, who also co-own Curves stores in Norwalk, Huron, and Sandusky, came up with the Girls' Night Out to entertain women while raising money for cancer. Their mission was to raise funds for all types of cancer, not just breast cancer, he said.
"It's like anything in the world: Something touches you, and it was my Dad and prostate cancer," said Mr. Studer, whose father died six years ago after a nearly 10-year battle.
Ms. Thomas, the breast cancer survivor named Girls' Night Out Woman of the Year in 2005, said the event increases cancer education, mixing awareness with fun. "You just can't give people enough information about it," she said. "The key is early detection. If you can find it early, you have the best chance of being cured."
Beneficiaries of this year's event include Cancer Services in Sandusky, which provides financial assistance, transportation, and other services; the cancer care fund Firelands Regional Medical Center in Sandusky; North Coast Cancer Foundation in Sandusky, and the mammography fund at Fisher-Titus Medical Center in Norwalk.
So far this year, 26 uninsured or underinsured women have received free mammograms and related services through the Fisher-Titus fund established in 2001, said hospital President Pat Martin, who has family members with cancer and was a Deal or No Deal caseholder last year.
Huron Fire Chief Paul Berlin and Sandusky Acting Police Chief Charlie Sams also were caseholders last year. Chief Sams, who is going to reprieve the caseholder role on Wednesday, said the men don't appear in skimpy dresses as the infamous female Deal or No Deal models do on television.
"My charity only goes so far," he said with a chuckle.
Contact Julie M. McKinnon at:
jmckinnon@theblade.com
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