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For the first time, Beaumont-based Gift of Life will hold a men’s health screening in Hardin County, according to executive director Norma Sampson, who made the assessment during the approval of a resolution proclaiming June as Men’s Health Month and June 13 as Gift of Life Men’s Health Awareness Day in Hardin County.
Sampson said the free men’s health and prostate cancer screening is set for Saturday, July 15, at the Hardin County Health Department, 1135 Redwood St. in Kountze. Call (409) 833-3663 or visit giftoflifebmt.org to set an appointment.
“They can take advantage of $500 worth of free screenings. We will also have onsite physicians, a full panel of primary care in addition to the prostate cancer lab drop,” said Sampson. “So, they’ll get point of care, meaning some of those tests will be provided onsite, and then the physicians, which include the support of the Hardin County Health Department in addition to Baptist Hospital residents and our medical director, will provide consultations and go over test results with them there and navigate and give them directions in terms of critical follow-up care that many individuals, we found, also have other chronic diseases such as diabetes and cardiovascular disease.”
The Gift of Life executive added that men then get the next follow-up critical care at their primary care doctor’s office, or Gift of Life will navigate those who need it to federally-qualified clinics.
“Those men with abnormal prostate-specific antigens, the Gift of Life pays for all of this. In addition, (we) will pay for the next follow-up care for them to see local urologists and to go through the pathology if needed, and cancer treatment,” said Sampson, adding that this is made possible with the county’s support and support of Southeast Texas businesses to medically underserved men. “That simply means they can’t afford health insurance or are often a high deductible is associated with whatever coverage they have.”
The Hardin County resolution noted that Texas is the medically uninsured capital of the U.S., with 5.2 million Texans without coverage. In 2023, an estimated 17,230 men in Texas will be diagnosed with prostate cancer, and approximately 2,290 will die from the disease.
Since 2000, more than 10,990 Southeast Texas men have received Gift of Life free prostate cancer screenings.