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Unable to travel or lift more than 10 pounds during the recovery process, Rhodes is missing out on the inaugural CFL Week festivities in Regina this week. At the same time, Canadian Football Hall-of-Famer and Eskimos legend Larry Highbaugh, who died while undergoing heart surgery Tuesday evening, had also been diagnosed with prostate cancer.

Rhodes knows he is hardly alone when it comes to facing cancer.

And he doesn’t want sympathy. What he wants is to use his story to, hopefully, encourage anyone and everyone to stop coming up with excuses to avoid their annual checkup.

“I feel very fortunate that if I’m going to have cancer that it ends up being prostate cancer because a lot of people who have been diagnosed with prostate cancer have a very good probability for recovery and for cure,” Rhodes said.

As long as it’s caught early enough, of course.

“The good news out of that is I was diagnosed at Stage 1, which meant it was treatable and I also had choices in terms of treatment options, including removing my prostate,” said Rhodes. “Because it was diagnosed early, I have a good prognosis for treatment, recovery and cure.”

What he was less sure about, and understandably so, was going public with such a personal matter. While he alerted some media, along with Eskimos staff members and the board of directors, early on in the process in efforts to provide full disclosure while also maintaining his privacy, Rhodes wound up cancelling an initial interview for this story, and struggled with the same decision a second time around. In the end, he realized the benefits outweighed any drawbacks if it meant bringing attention to prostate cancer.

“Honestly, what took me so long to get back to you is I didn’t really want this to be about me,” Rhodes said. “You go through something like this, it’s very personal. But at the same time, anytime in my life when I come across a negative, I try to find a positive.

“The stats show now in Canada one in eight men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer. Go for a full physical every year. Don’t procrastinate, don’t avoid it, do something about it.”

GModdejonge@postmedia.com

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