Man Up Leads to Life-Changing Diagnosis

“We found that it was a very aggres­sive can­cer. My next test would have been six months lat­er with my reg­u­lar doctor.”

You may rec­og­nize Mr. Les Fon­za from his years of ser­vice as the band direc­tor of Quin­cy Senior High School or his involve­ment through­out our community.

At QMG, we rec­og­nize him from his jour­ney at Man Up.

Quin­cy Med­ical Group (QMG) and Cathe­dral of Wor­ship are team­ing up for the fourth annu­al Man Up, an event aimed at encour­ag­ing men to pri­or­i­tize their health. The event offers expert advice and free screen­ings to help atten­dees make proac­tive steps towards a health­i­er lifestyle, and in Fonza’s case, a life-sav­ing diagnosis.

Encour­aged by his son, he went to Man Up in 2023 and vis­it­ed each health sta­tion, includ­ing the last station‑a prostate-spe­cif­ic anti­gen (PSA) test for prostate cancer.

“My son said you need to go to this. So, we went. We went through all the sta­tions and took part in the tests that were offered includ­ing lab work. They did a PSA test, and my PSA was high,” Fon­za said.

After look­ing over his labs, the ele­vat­ed PSA lev­el prompt­ed fur­ther eval­u­a­tion by his pri­ma­ry care doc­tor which led to a refer­ral to QMG Urol­o­gist Dr. Daniel Schnei­der.

“They took anoth­er PSA test, and it was a lit­tle high­er than he want­ed it to be for my age,” Fon­za explained.

The time­ly inter­ven­tion proved cru­cial in diag­nos­ing an aggres­sive form of prostate can­cer. If not caught, Fonza’s out­come could have been much different.

“If it hadn’t been for Man Up, I may not have been here. We found that it was a very aggres­sive can­cer. My next test would have been six months lat­er with my reg­u­lar doc­tor,” he said.

Fon­za under­went a com­pre­hen­sive treat­ment plan includ­ing radi­a­tion, hor­mone ther­a­py, and brachyther­a­py. While hor­mone treat­ment con­tin­ues, his lat­est PSA results are promising.

“At my last exam­i­na­tion, I was down to 0.0,” he shared.

Despite a fam­i­ly his­to­ry of can­cer, his diag­no­sis caught him by sur­prise. Look­ing back, Fon­za said he had expe­ri­enced decreased ener­gy, but there were no obvi­ous symp­toms indi­cat­ing a problem.

“We have a long line of can­cer in our fam­i­ly. None of the men have prostate can­cer,” Fon­za said.

Fon­za strong­ly empha­sizes the impor­tance of ear­ly detec­tion and over­com­ing the fear sur­round­ing med­ical pro­ce­dures, par­tic­u­lar­ly among men.

“I don’t under­stand why guys don’t want to go to the doc­tor. This was a good thing to do. Many are scared, think­ing of treat­ments as they used to be. Med­i­cine and tech­nol­o­gy have come a long, long way,” he stated.

Encour­ag­ing oth­ers to take advan­tage of the free screen­ings offered at Man Up, Fon­za said, ​“Man Up could save your life and it’s free. You shouldn’t have any reser­va­tions about com­ing. Hope­ful­ly, you’re going to find out things that are pos­i­tive about your health, and if not, they’re going to direct you to the right place.”

As Fon­za looks ahead to a health­i­er future, his mes­sage is clear: ​“You don’t need to be afraid any­more. Take care of your­self and get checked out.”

The 2024 Man Up event takes place on Sat­ur­day, August 24, from 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at South Park in Quincy.