Public awareness of the importance of preventive medicine is growing if the big turnout Saturday at Tutu Park Mall is any indication, where dozens lined up for free screenings for HIV, prostate cancer and diabetes.
At the 2009 LifeStyle Festival/Healthy Encores Health Awareness Day, Maria Quinquilla and another worker were greeting men who were having their blood screened for prostate specific antigen, a possible indicator for prostate cancer. She said their numbers this year were up.
“We’ve had about 50 people,” she said. “We expected to do 35.”
She said about half of the men who had been tested had a history of cancer in their family. “They are very conscious, and they’re actually doing something about it,” she said.
Elrod Potter Sr. and his brother were among those tested. Potter said that he is usually examined by his own private doctor, but had come along with his brother for moral support.
He was surprised to see how easy the test — which requires that just a small amount of blood be taken – was.
“Like taking candy from a baby,” he said.
Maryland native Lenore Coleman was busy at her station, coordinating a team of about 25 medical professionals who ran the health care gauntlet. She had set up a series of booths for visitors which included kidney screening, blood pressure taking, blood cholesterol screening, blood glucose testing, body fat examination, a medication review and an exit interview.
Coleman’s nonprofit group, Total Lifestyle Change, contributes to the festival every year. She said it takes her about six months to organize for the event; she brings her own equipment and a team of medical professionals. Two lab technicians from Havensight Labs helped administer urine tests.
Lifestyle Festival/Healthy Encores President and CEO Lorraine Milliner said that she wanted to reach out to the community with the festival.
“We want to make people aware of their health. We want people to be health-conscious,” she said.
Milliner said she started the festival, which is in its fourth year, after the death of her father from diabetes. Although she is now living in Baltimore and working as a radio disc jockey, Milliner said it was important to give back to her Virgin Islands community.
Saturday’s event was actually the second Health Awareness Day. The first was held July 18 in St. Croix. At both events, students from Charlotte Amalie High School and Central High School participated in an essay contest sponsored by computer company IBM. The top prize was a $2,500 laptop.
The Stop the Violence concert was also scheduled for Saturday night at Coral World in Smith Bay.
