Men Talking Cancer Blog: Steven Crocker
Advocating for Testicular Cancer Awareness
By Steven Crocker
Steven Crocker was diagnosed with testicular cancer a few days after his 25th birthday. Since then it has become his life’s mission to be an advocate for the awareness of testicular cancer. To do so he started the podcast “It takes Balls”, where he interviews both patients and professionals alike. He is a board member of the Testicular Cancer Awareness foundation and an admin of their Facebook group.
Advocate is both a noun and a verb, depending on how it’s pronounced. Ever since my stage 2B testicular cancer diagnosis, it has become my life’s mission to be an advocate, who advocates, for the awareness of testicular cancer.
Helping others, or at least trying to, is something I have always been passionate about, thanks to the example set by my parents. And with the support of my beautiful wife, Ashley, I found an opportunity.
It’s advocates like Man Up To Cancer’s founding fathers, Trevor Maxwell and Joe Bullock, who always inspire me. In fact, Trevor’s podcast was one of the many reasons I wanted to start a testicular cancer-centered podcast, called “It Takes Balls”, where I’ve been able to echo some of the work that MUTC is doing.
In one of the earlier episodes of my podcast, it was Dr. Phil Pierorazio of UPenn that mentioned how testicular cancer is “a disease of survivors”. That really stuck with me. Not because testicular cancer is highly curable, but because there are so many of us dealing with longterm ramifications and trauma of sickness and treatment.
It is my hope, that by amplifying the voices of guys who have been through testicular cancer, that their stories will connect with others. Helping those who may feel alone or those that have a sense of shame about the feeling that a part of their “manhood” has been taken. Whether or not they act on this connection by reaching out, or by joining support groups like The Howling Place is up to them, but knowing that the resources are available is a large part of the battle.
In the most positive way, I cannot imagine what my life would be like if I wouldn’t have had cancer. With that being said, by advocating, there is this feeling I have, that my continued proximity to the disease, does create a heightened sense of paranoia. It is during the awareness months for testicular cancer and men’s health, when the advocacy-work is at its peak, that I always seem to feel an increase in those very aches and pains that led me to the doctor to begin with.
But, the more we can get guys talking about their testicular cancer, the less taboo it will become to talk about testicles. Being less taboo will, hopefully, ripple into more and more guys catching testicular cancer in its early stages. This importance of early detection generally applies to cancer as a whole.
Advocacy and cancer have given me purpose and opened doors that otherwise would, most likely, not have opened and for that I am most grateful. My hope is to continue finding new ways to spread awareness of testicular cancer for as long as this life will have me.
