For most of his life, Mike has been the kind of person who simply keeps moving forward.
He spent years farming, driving trucks, and serving as a firefighter for more than three decades. Along the way, he survived experiences that would have changed many people forever. As a young man working on the oil rigs, he walked away from a well-site explosion. Then came a brain tumor that required a 14-and-a-half-hour surgery and carried only a slim chance of survival. Years later, a powerful microburst struck while he was working on the farm, throwing him from the top of a haystack and leaving him with a broken pelvis and back. Later, kidney cancer led to the loss of a kidney.
Each challenge became another chapter in a life defined by resilience.
Yet for all the obstacles Mike had overcome, prostate cancer arrived in a way neither he nor his family could have anticipated.
The story began with a simple phone call from his son.
As CEO of the Prostate Cancer Centre, Jeff Davison spends his days talking about early detection, prevention, and the importance of men’s health. Every year, he sees thousands of patients and families navigate prostate cancer. He understands the statistics, the treatments, and the outcomes. He knows better than most that when prostate cancer is found early, lives can be saved.
What he didn’t know was that one day those conversations would become deeply personal.
When the MAN VAN® needed a driver for an event, Jeff reached out to his dad. Mike had spent years driving commercial vehicles and fire trucks, so helping out seemed like an easy favour to ask.
Mike agreed without hesitation.
There was nothing remarkable about the request at the time. It was simply a father helping his son.
Neither of them could have imagined that the decision would ultimately change the course of their family’s future.
While volunteering with the MAN VAN®, Mike was encouraged to take a PSA blood test. It wasn’t something he had given much thought to. He felt healthy. Life was busy. Like many men, his focus had always been on the people around him rather than himself.
The test revealed something unexpected.
More tests followed. Then a biopsy. Then the words no family ever wants to hear.
“You have cancer.”
For Mike, the diagnosis brought an immediate wave of uncertainty. Having already survived a brain tumor and kidney cancer, he understood exactly what that word could mean. No amount of previous experience makes hearing it easier.
For Jeff, the moment was complicated.
There was the instinctive fear that comes with hearing your father has cancer. But there was also something else: confidence.
Not confidence because it was his father. Confidence because he had spent years watching patients successfully navigate this exact situation and he knew exactly what tools the Prostate Cancer Centre has in their toolbox when prostate cancer is caught early.
“This is what we do every single day,” Jeff said. “We knew it was caught early. We knew we had options.”
That knowledge became a source of comfort for the entire family. While the diagnosis was frightening, there was also reassurance in knowing they were surrounded by people who dealt with prostate cancer every day. The same doctors, nurses, and care teams Jeff had trusted with thousands of other patients were now helping his father.
Still, understanding the process and living through it are two very different things.
For the first time, Jeff wasn’t seeing prostate cancer through the lens of a CEO. He was experiencing it as a son.
He saw the appointments, the uncertainty, and the emotional weight that comes with waiting for answers. He watched his family rally around his father. He gained a deeper appreciation for what spouses, children, and caregivers experience every day when someone they love is diagnosed.
It reinforced something the Prostate Cancer Centre has always believed:
Saving lives. Saving families.
Because cancer never belongs to just one person.
It affects everyone who loves them.
Throughout treatment, Mike found strength in the people around him. His wife and daughter accompanied him throughout all his treatments and appointments. His family remained close. Doctors and nurses carefully explained every step of the process. Questions were answered. Concerns were addressed. Gradually, what had initially felt overwhelming became manageable.
One phrase in particular stayed with him:
Nobody goes through the journey alone.
For Mike, those words became more than a message. They became his experience.
Months later, after treatment and countless appointments, the call finally came.
Cancer-free.
The relief was immediate.
After carrying the weight of uncertainty for so long, it felt as though something had finally been lifted. The future suddenly seemed wider again. The plans that had been interrupted by cancer could begin to return. Life could move forward.
For Jeff, the moment served as a powerful reminder of why the work matters.
Every day at the Prostate Cancer Centre, patients are encouraged to get screened because early detection saves lives. His father had become living proof of that message.
Had Mike not agreed to volunteer that day, had he not stepped onto the MAN VAN®, had he not agreed to a simple blood test, the outcome could have been very different.
Instead, cancer was found early.
Instead, treatment could begin immediately.
Instead, a family was given something priceless: more time together.
Today, Mike continues to volunteer with the Prostate Cancer Centre and still helps drive the MAN VAN® that played such an important role in his own journey. He often shares his story with other men, hoping it encourages them to take the same simple step that changed his life.
His message is straightforward.
Get checked.
Don’t wait for symptoms. Don’t assume it can’t happen to you.
Because fifteen minutes for a blood test may not seem important today.
But it could mean more birthdays, more family dinners, more stories, and more Father’s Days tomorrow.
For Mike and Jeff, that truth isn’t just part of their work anymore.
It’s part of their family’s story.