Veterans and Prostate Cancer

 

We need you!

 

On October 22, 2020, our ZERO The End Of Prostate Cancer license plate bill was signed into law Our next hurdle in this is Petition To Establish Organizational License Plates. We need 150 valid signatures of support before the Bureau of Motor Vehicles will start production of the license plates. Please fill out the following information on the form. First Name, Last Name, Middle Initial, Phone Number with area code, Address, City, Zip, Current License Plate Number, Ohio DL or Ohio ID number, Signature. All forms need to be returned to me to be counted. We need the signature petitions as soon as possible. Linda@zerocancer.org

The funds from ZERO The End Of Prostate Cancer license plates would stay in Ohio to provide free patient navigation services to reduce financial toxicity among prostate cancer families and free transportation for prostate cancer patients to doctor appointments.

June 19, 2009 Ray and I never expected to hear those horrible words in our lives. You have an aggressive form of prostate cancer. But we did! Ray has a prostatectomy October 12, 2009. We had learned that the cancer has spread to his lymph nodes. One thing for sure was that I was not going to sit back and do nothing. We started advocating for Prostate Cancer Awareness and Education in Ohio and on Capitol Hill. Through the years we have met some amazing people who have also been impacted by prostate cancer as well. Some have been Athletes, Elected Officials and families like us. Ray is in remission but we will not let our guard down. We know that prostate cancer can rear its ugly head at any time.

Please sign and share our petition with your family and friends as well.

Ken Griffey Sr

Did you know Ken Griffey Sr was diagnosed with prostate cancer?

Read Ken Griffey Sr. story

 

24 Day Until Spring

Petey is so ready for Spring to get here! 

 

Bold For Blue

 Last year, ZERO introduced the Impact Awards for the first time, and even in a virtual setting, we’re keeping this new tradition going strong!

The below individuals were nominated by members of the ZERO Community for their passion, drive, and determined impact in our mission to end prostate cancer. 

Linda and Ray Hoetger are always open and willing to share their prostate cancer story with others and members of the media

#boldforblue #ZEROStrong

Us TOO Lancaster, Ohio

 

ZERO The End Of Prostate Cancer License plates

 I just sent in 14 Signatures form to be verified. if all goes well they will be added to the 52 already verified. We need 150 signatures before the BMV will start on the production of our license plates. ZERO The End of Prostate Cancer.

IF you would like to sign the petition I can send you the form either by email or by snail mail. Linda@zerocancer.org

 Petey's Wishing for a Cure!! He was out riding his motorcycle and came across this wishing well.

Love is in the air!

Petey found a lady friend to share Valentine's Day with. His gift to her was a PSA Test. How about you Guys have your PSA lately?

Signatures needed!

 52 of the 79 signatures were valid. 😢 We need 150 Signatures of support! 

Funds from the ZERO The End Of Prostate Cancer license plates would stay in Ohio to provide free patient navigation services to reduce financial toxicity among prostate cancer and free transportation for prostate cancer patients to doctor appointments. Education regarding prostate cancer and early detection strategies is critical to saving lives, preserving, and protecting our families. 

On June 19, 2009, my life forever changed my husband was diagnosed with an aggressive form of prostate cancer. You always see license plates for all sorts of causes, except for one. Prostate cancer. I wanted to change that. Ohio will be the first state in the nation to have ZERO The End Of Prostate Cancer license plates. 

Please send the completed forms to Linda@zerocancer.org Feel free to contact me for the form as well. 

This is just an example of what the license plates would look lime. The 4DAD would need to be applied for.

Love is in the air!

 

 

 

 

Edward C. Kaps 2012

 Older story but I wanted to share it, going through older emails. I have the nomination letters and they bring tears to my eyes! When Ray was first diagnosed I felt so alone. Trying to find a support group for men and women that meets together was impossible. 

COMMUNITY NEWS

Linda Hoetger receives Edward C. Kaps 2012 Award

LANCASTER — Dr. Bill Stevens, chapter leader of The Prostate Cancer Education and Support Network of Fairfield County, recently announced that member Linda Hoetger received the Edward C. Kaps 2012 Award. The award is given to an outstanding leader in an Us TOO support group who has shown unselfish, dedicated service to prostate cancer survivors and their families. Hoetger became involved in the group in 2009 after her husband, Ray, was diagnosed and treated for advanced prostate cancer. She has been dedicated and active in support of prostate cancer awareness, both locally and nationally, Stevens said. Hoetger has attended several conferences and health fairs, and organized her first fundraising event called “Pasta for Prostates” in 2012. Established in 1995, Us TOO International now has more than 300 chapters worldwide and is dedicated to promoting prostate cancer awareness. This is the second time the Lancaster chapter has received the award. Stevens was honored in 2009. www.ustoo.org

Verification stage now!

 We are in the verification process of the signatures. We need 150 valid signatures before the BMV will start production of the license plates. I have 40 complete signatures and 39 that have missing information. If they can be verified they will be valid signatures. Bringing a total of 79 of the 150 needed!

Funds from the ZERO The End Of Prostate Cancer license plates will stay in Ohio to provide free patient navigation services to reduce financial toxicity among prostate cancer and free transportation for prostate cancer patients to doctors appointments

Hopefully, soon our prostate cancer license plates will be available!

Please feel free to email me for the form as well. The form can be scanned and emailed back or It can be sent to me via USPS.

Linda@zerocancer.org

This beautiful Prostate Cancer and charm could be yours!

To be eligible to win this you need to get 7 valid signatures on one form. To be considered all lines of the form needs to be filled out.

7 valid signatures = ! entry to the drawing for the Prostate Cancer bracelet and charm!

Prostate Cancer Awareness and Education

Whereas, this year approximately 248,530 men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer in the United States alone every year and roughly 34,130 will die this year from the disease; and

Whereas, in Ohio an estimated 73,320 new cases of prostate cancer will be diagnosed and an estimated 25,140 deaths will occur; and

Wheres, In 2021, a man will die from prostate cancer every 15 minutes. A man will be diagnosed every 2 minutes. And 1 in 8 men will develop prostate cancer; and 

Whereas, Men with relatives – father, brother, son – with a history of prostate cancer are twice as likely to develop the disease; and

Whereas, Prostate cancer is the second leading cause of cancer death in American men, behind only lung cancer; and

Whereas, Men who served in the military who have been exposed to chemicals and herbicides are at a higher risk for developing prostate cancer; and

Whereas, Education regarding prostate cancer and early detection strategies is critical to saving lives, preserving, and protecting our families. 

Whereas, The economic and social hardship it has on the families is huge; Prostate cancer is estimated to cost over $8 billion in direct medical expenditures: and

Whereas, Nearly 3.1 million men in the U.S. are living with a prostate cancer diagnosis; that number is estimated to climb to 4 million by 2024 as men in the baby boomer generation age; and

Whereas, all men are at risk for prostate cancer and we encourage the citizens of (City) to increase the importance of prostate screenings.

 

Bureau Of Motor Vehicles process

 During this time waiting for our Bill to makes its way through the Legislation. process. I began working on the form needed by the Breau Of Motor Vehicles. Just go to your BMV website and search Organizational license plates and see what the process is for your state. I recommend printing all the needed forms on the website. One thing I did was to get a notebook and page protectors for when there was something I want to print out. This was great to take with me to meetings, reference,  or when someone asked me about the Bill. Most of this can be found online through the Legislation website. 

Ohio requires 150 signatures of support before the BMV will start production of the license plates. The necessary form needed asks for your name, address, phone number, plate number, and driver's license number, and signature. It can be found on the website as well. They suggest getting more than the 150 signatures just in case a signature is considered invalid for some reason or another. The form online has space for seven signatures, but some people are hesitant to sign the form as others can see your information. I took the form and folded it down for one signature printed it out and have people sign that one if they are hesitant. With the form, I post it to social media platforms for getting signatures and tell them they can send it back by email or in the mail. We attended a Cocktails for a Cause last month and took the forms with us for people to sign. I printed off the multiple forms and also the single form with my contact information on both. You can upload the form to a PDF filler site and add your information. This is what our license plates look like when they are put into production. Once we get the needed signatures and the names have been verified through the BMV they will be available for a car near you. This process may take time. The person I'm working with at the BMV said it could take months and even may take years. I am doing my best to get it done in months and not years. My car needs a new tag! 

Usually, events are great places to get signatures. I take a clipboard, and pen with me and ask for signatures of support. Use social media when you can. Ask your family and friends to share with their network. The more people you have helping the sooner you will get the needed signatures.  

Cut in half and make two forms

Introduction of the License plate process

 People ask me how I went about getting the Prostate Cancer license plates done. In 2009, I noticed there are no license plates for prostate cancer. I was going to do my best to change that. In 2012, ZERO The End Of Prostate Cancer reached out to me for all of my advocating for prostate cancer. So this is one of the steps is having the backing of an organization that will receive the funds from the license plates. The next step was to work with our Representatives at the Ohio Statehouse. I contacted Representative Richard Brown who is our district representative. I reached out to him through social media and asked to meet with him. At the meeting, I shared my journey as a wife of a prostate cancer patient and survivor. As well as Ray shared his as a patient and survivor. Representative Brown also shared that his family had been impacted by prostate cancer in his family. He graciously accepted to introduce the Bill for ZERO The End OF Prostate Cancer license plates. We needed a Representative from both sides of the Ohio Statehouse. Ray worked with Representative Scott Lipps at the Columbus Veterans Administration before he was elected to the House Of Representatives. Again Representative Lipps graciously accepted to be a Co-sponsor. So now we had a Democrat and Republican to Sponsor and to Co-sponsor the Bill.

 

Our bill started out as House Bill 570 in 2018. On June 20, 2018 it was introduced by Representtive Brown and Representative Lipps. As our Bill made its way though the Ohio Statehouse we were invited to attend the meetings. Unfortunatlly we were not able to attend due to medical appointments. The date June 20 is a special day for us. We met on June 20, 1983 maybe this was a sign it was going to pass and become law! It took two years to make its way thirough the Statehouse and changed to House Bill 107. In 2020 our Bill was added to an Omnibus Bill and was finally passed with Senate Bill 163. On October 22, 2020, it was signed into law by Governor Mike DeWine. 

 

How it started

On June 19, 2009, my husband Ray was diagnosed with an aggressive form of prostate cancer at the age of 56. After the initial feeling of hitting a brick wall. I had never heard of this cancer. Men don't like talking about it. I am also the mom of four sons. He had no family history. Ray is the oldest of three sons. The only thing we can put some of the pieces together on how this might have occurred. When he graduated he entered into the United States Air Force. He joined as a Firefighter and then cross-trained into Weather. In the military, you are exposed to many chemicals and herbicides which have proven to be harmful over time. One of the major chemicals that was used in the military was Agent Orange. This was mainly used in Vietnam. Though my husband was never in Vietnam he has been denied any compensation from the military. I did start doing research about Agent Orange and did find out that many of the Bases he was stationed at either had Agent Orange stored at them or was contaminated with other chemicals and herbicides. That explains a lot. When we started having children I did not know that our children would be born with birth defects. We have four sons as I mentioned. Our oldest son was born with a hole in his heart, which thankfully closed up with our surgery. our second son was born with a learning disability, and webbed toes on both feet. The third son no real issues, our fourth son was born with three heart murmurs, bad ears that caused hearing loss. They all have coped with everything pretty well. My husband was married before me and had three children with his previous wife. His first son was born with a hole in his heart that took his life at eight days old. His first daughter was born premature, the second daughter was born healthy. So out of seven children and two wives, there seems to be an issue there.

Men who have been diagnosed with prostate cancer will not talk about it or let their loved ones talk about it. I got lucky that Ray doesn't mind me sharing my story. I knew I was not going to sit back and do nothing. So I started advocating for prostate cancer awareness and education. When I started advocating with ZERO The End Of Prostate Cancer in 2012, we attended our first Summit in Washington, D.C. On the last day of the Summit, we head to Capitol Hill and meet with our elected officials from our states. This was my first time being in D.C. We are all dropped off for our scheduled meetings for the day. We had our first meeting with Senator Sherrod Brown at 8;30am, but at 8:15am I took a Spill on Capitol Hill and broke my let. The Capitol police wanted to call for the medics to take me to the hospital. I said no. We have meetings and I am not going to miss them they are too important to me. So they called for a wheelchair and off we went. We were a little bit late to Senator Brown's Coffee meeting. I shared my story. Please keep the funding and research in the Fiscal Year Budget. We had five meetings that day and I attended all five with a broken leg. People saw me from the Summit and said I was dedicated to keeping going to the meetings. Our first year advocating the budget was 80 Million dollars. Last year the funding budget was 110 Million.  Sadly COVID-19 has canceled the Summit in Washington, D.C. for 2021. I do hope we are able to return to in-person Summits in the future. I miss the friends we have made at the Summit. We can still keep in touch through social media but it's not the same. 

Support For Caregivers

Many times I am asked to share my story as a wife/caregiver. 

 

Lipps Announces Legislation Raising Awareness for Prostate Cancer Signed into Law

November 5, 2020

P. Scott Lipps News

COLUMBUS – State Rep. Scott Lipps (R-Franklin) today announced Governor DeWine has recently signed into law legislation that will help increase awareness about prostate cancer and pre-emptive screenings for the disease.

The measure, part of Senate Bill 163, creates the “Zero” license plate to raise awareness and urge men to participate in prostate cancer preventative efforts. Zero is a national nonprofit with the mission to end prostate cancer by advancing research, improving the lives of men and families, and inspiring action.

Under the bill, motorists are allowed to voluntarily purchase a specialty license for Zero through the Ohio Registrar’s office. The cost of each specialized plate is $35, of which $25 goes directly to Zero.

“This license plate is a simple, yet effective way to inform Ohioans about prostate cancer and encourage screenings,” said Lipps. “I’m proud Ohio has taken a step forward to support organizations like Zero that work to provide male Ohioans with the tools and information needed to protect their health.”

According to Zero, one in nine American men will have prostate cancer during his lifetime. Prostate cancer is the leading cause of cancer death among American men and is the most commonly diagnosed.

Lipps originally introduced the legislation as House Bill 107. The bill was amended into S.B. 163 during House Transportation and Public Safety Committee to include other license plates for a variety of causes.

Governor DeWine signed the bill on October 22, 2020.

Cocktails for a Cause 2020

Last night Petey attended the 2nd Annual Cocktails for a Cause at the Buckeye Bourbon House in Columbus. They had a sample of OMG Mac and Cheese with bacon jam. Yummy...was that good. The proceeds raised go to the Prostate Cancer Foundation. There was an online auction and also raffle prizes too. Can't wait for the 3rd Annual Cocktails for a Cause 2021!

We got to learn about how the Mai Tai was made! Petey go to try a small glass!

Look, Mom! 

I dint fall off this time! LOL

The story about this is that Petey attended the Brew Dog Grand opening when he didn't have a hat/ He fell off the barrel and cracked a hole in his head. He said no biggie Mom will fix me. And that is why he has a hat on now!

 

Proclamations for Prostate Cancer 2014 - 2020

Link: Proclamations throughout the years 

You always hear and see elected officials doing Proclamations and Resolutions for different causes. But there was one here in Ohio that never seems to be mentioned. Prostate Cancer! I contacted the elected officials and asked why? No one has asked before. Humm...challenge accepted! I did my research and found the needed Whereas statements for the Proclamations. And then put them together and started sending out countless emails to all the elected officials in Ohio. Every City, Village, and Township that I could find on the internet. I started a database as well with names, titles, email, and office addresses. While sending out the emails I would get responses of I am a survivor. My family has been impacted by prostate cancer. Many times they would ask if we would like to attend a Council meeting for a Proclamation reading and presentation, Of course, we would! I mainly focus on Ohio as that is where I live. but as you can see there are a few other states as well. 

My husband is from Kingston, New York, and the Mayor has supported the past few years. Three of my sons are from Fort Benning, which is outside of Columbus, Georgia. and my dad's family is from Columbus, Indiana. The other states were pretty much an accident because they have the same name as cities here in Ohio. When I get into the zone I think it is Ohio and find out it was not. But it has been all good many of the Mayors have sent one anyway supporting their families of prostate cancer. 

In January 2021, I will be back at it asking for Proclamations and Resolutions in support of the many men and their families dealing with the disease and to encourage education for prostate cancer in the Month of September.