​Movember in September Golf Classic raises $35,000

Held Friday, Sept. 23, at Ainsdale Golf Course, just south of Kincardine, the event drew 121 golfers, plus another 15 for the dinner following the round of golf.

Organizer Todd Thompson said he was thrilled by the turn-out, and the sunny weather. The inaugural event last year didn’t fare so well – it was rained out and became the Movember in September Dinner Classic instead, raising $13,000 for the cause.

Thompson was inspired to start the golf classic after he was diagnosed and received treatment for prostate cancer in April, 2020, at the age of 45.

“My cancer was caught by chance as we believed we had cleared up my initial issue with a Type 2 Diabetes diagnosis, but Dr. Gary Gurbin insisted that we continue to test my PSA (Prostate-Specific Antigen) on follow-up blood work which was monitoring my blood sugar levels,” says Thompson.

“So, I was getting blood work done once a month to monitor my blood sugar and my PSA levels, but after a series of months when my PSA continued to rise, I was refereed to a urologist and that’s where the cancer was found.”

After he received his cancer “all clear” from the urologist, Thompson decided to go public and talk about men’s health, “because guys my age are not talking about this and I wanted to change that.”

Since speaking out, he has received dozens of E-mails from men asking questions and telling him that they are starting to look at their health more seriously because he shared his story.

“There is no greater feeling in the world then hearing someone tell me that,” says Thompson.

Speaking of which, during the dinner part of the golf classic, Thompson showed a video of David Webb of Australia who is on the other side of the Movember donations, benefitting from the advancements made from the money that is raised. Thompson looks forward to meeting Webb when he travels to Australia in November.

“I was introduced to him through a co-worker, Nicole Harrow, as we have similar stories in that we were both diagnosed at age 45 …. both kinda out of nowhere,” says Thompson. “As you can tell in his video, he has not been as lucky as I have and is currently fighting a related cancer but not prostate cancer.”

View the video here: www.facebook.com/todd.thompson.5203/videos/427355176053658.

Helping Thompson with the golf classic, were volunteers Anne Marie Ruthven, Jenni Reid-Gayle, Donna Bridge, Lindsay Riggin, Jennifer White, Ken Corbett, Aaron Dahmer, Jennifer Lawrie, Craig Milburn, Ryan and Tara McGinn and Bruce Fenton.