By Shamsiya Hussainpoor
The Ferntree Gully Market has opened its heart this Father’s Day and donated its accumulated $3000 funds to the Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia at the Box Hill Hospital on Thursday 22 August.
The Gully Market is a long-established market that is run by a committee, all volunteer-based.
The venue runs every Saturday and Sunday in the carpark of the Upper Ferntree Gully Train Station, known for its hot food, plants, fruit, and veggies – with most of them locally produced.
The president of the market Ian Rice has been meaning to distribute the money back to his community the moment he became part of the organisation.
“I and a few others at the market have prostate cancer, and for the last 11 years, the money has just been accumulating,” Mr Rice said.
“When I took over last September, we had quite a sizable amount of money that we shouldn’t have, because it’s meant to be distributed back to the community, so I’ve been on a mission to get rid of it.”
Prostate cancer is a small doughnut-shaped gland that sits below the bladder and is found only in men and a normal prostate is about the size of a walnut.
According to the Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia, 16 per cent of cancer patients are suffering from prostate.
The surge in cases to 26,368 per year is equivalent to 72 men diagnosed each day, while nearly 11 men will die from the disease every 24 hours.
On a positive note, the five-year relative survival rate has risen from 95.6 per cent to 95.8 per cent, meaning 53 more men have a chance of surviving five years who might otherwise have not.
The Southern Regions for the Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia community engagement manager Linley Watson said every donation is valued, and it goes towards research, awareness, and support.
“We run a lot of campaigns, like the long run, where people donate individually, or they get together with a team and walk or run two-kilometres – that’s the main type of our fundraising but having a local community raising funds like this donation from the market, is very substantial,” Ms Watson said.
“$3,000 is a lot of money, and we really do appreciate it, especially in these hard times.”
“Our message to men is to ask your doctor for a PSA test, which is a simple blood test, they often think it’s something else that they don’t want to do, but it’s just a simple blood test, and it may well save their lives.”
Mr Rice considers himself as one of the “privileged” patients because he was diagnosed as advanced.
“I already had prostate cancer, but the treatment didn’t work, they found spots in my spine, but I was fortunate enough to be given medications that stopped the cancer from spreading, the drugs were donated by a company to the hospital.”
The donation was dedicated to prostate cancer specialist nurses’ services – the nurses are specifically trained to care for prostate patients and families and work closely with their doctors to ensure they get the services and support they may need both within the hospital and outside, and throughout their journey of recovery.
The Gully Market president said he knows the good of donations and that it always comes back in one way or another like a good Karma.
He said places like the hospital shouldn’t have to beg for donations but rather provided with more care and support for the services it provides for patients like him.
“I’ve been staggered, because we shouldn’t have to do this, it should be a given. It should be funded completely by the government; health, education and law and order should be accessible to all free of cost.”
