All Sports Foundation and DPC
Team Up against Prostate Cancer

Thanks to the All Sports Foundation, men in Maricopa County, Arizona, have greater access to prostate healthcare through a unique traveling service.

While battling prostate cancer in 1997, Gene Felker, a former NFL player, college coach and entrepreneur, was dismayed to find very little patient-friendly information available on prostate disease and its early detection through prostate-specific antigen (PSA) testing in combination with digital rectal exam (DRE). After going into remission a year later, he started the All Sports Foundation as a nonprofit organization funded by corporate donations and celebrity fundraising events.

A man with a mission, Mr. Felker uses his foundation to raise awareness of the potentially life-saving importance of annual prostate exams through local public service announcements, and to provide low- and no-cost prostate checkups (PSA testing and DRE) to men at their workplaces, sporting events and rural areas, such as Native American reservations. The Prostate On-Site Project (POP), a mobile screening center born from Mr. Felker's vision, administers testing services in a refurbished 40-foot bus, staffed by volunteers and now sporting a new IMMULITE^® 1000 immunoassay system.

Mr. Felker is very satisfied with the local laboratory's provision of phlebotomists and overnight response; his dream, however, is to provide immediate results, especially when serving rural areas and shopping centers. Recognizing Mr. Felker's humanitarian efforts, DPC welcomed the opportunity to place an IMMULITE on the bus so that POP could have a high-quality, space-efficient, reliable analyzer on site.

So far, with one-day screening events testing as many as 200 men, POP has been very successful within the 98 square miles of Maricopa County (home to more than half of Arizona's population). But Mr. Felker dreams big. He hopes, through additional corporate sponsorships, to expand services to all of Arizona in 2005, and, eventually, to the entire US.

The impact is significant. Says Mr. Felker, "I get all sorts of cards, letters and phone calls from men and their wives or girlfriends, thanking me for providing this service that has given them peace of mind and saved lives."

Gene Felker can be contacted at
All Sports Foundation, Inc.
P.O. Box 5667
Mesa, AZ 85211-5667
Phone: 480.964.3013
Fax: 480.964.1644