CLEVELAND — In 2015, Cleveland barber, Waverly Willis, who is also executive director of the Urban Barber Association, attended a Minority Men's Health Fair. He's known for talking to his clients about their health and even offers screenings in his shops.
Little did he know that health fair would save his life.
"I went to the urology department and gave a urine sample. Moments later, they told me that I had a microscopic trace of blood in my urine and I should get it checked out," Willis said. "I went to the doctor for more extensive tests and they called to tell me 'you have a large mass in your right kidney and we're gonna have to remove it.'
"I was furious until my doctor told me, 'What you don't understand is you're so fortunate to have those microscopic traces of urine blood in your urine because we could have a hundred men in this room right now that we definitely know have kidney cancer and maybe five of them will have any symptoms.' There are no symptoms, pretty much, for kidney cancer."
Willis underwent surgery to remove the cancerous kidney and is now thriving with just one.
"That one screening saved my life. Absolutely. It's no way around it. I would not be here right now," Willis said.
The MetroHealth event features more than 30 health screenings and education.
"I'm just so grateful that Dr. Modlin arranged these type of events and so if I have to, I'll scream from the mountaintop about how important these tests are," Willis said.
This year's fair will offer screenings for conditions prevalent in minorities including prostate cancer, diabetes, kidney, heart disease and vascular disease, high blood pressure, skin cancer, mental health concerns, lung and colorectal cancer, hepatitis, vitamin D deficiency and stroke.
This health fair has been a passion of Charles Modlin, MD, for the last two decades. He created the free health fair to address disproportionate disease rates in African American men. Research clearly shows fatality rates decrease with the early detection of preventable diseases.
"It's actually open to all men regardless of race, ethnicity, and even some women will attend the health fair to undergo the screenings, but we want to specifically focus on men of color because they have the highest incidents of a number of these healthcare disparities. For example as urologists, we diagnose and treat prostate cancer and the incidence is twice as high in black men, especially African American men compared to their white male counterparts. One of the reasons why their mortality is twice as high is because there's there are many social determinants of health that actually prevent or dissuade or discourage men of color from going in and getting screened," said Dr. Modlin, a urologist who also serves as medical director for equity, inclusion and diversity at MetroHealth.
The health fair is free and will be held from 5 to 8:30 p.m. on Thursday, April 27 at three MetroHealth locations: Main Campus Outpatient Pavilion, Cleveland Heights Medical Center and Ohio City Health Center.
Reservations are not required, but online registration is strongly encouraged. Though the health fair is geared toward men and minority health concerns, MetroHealth welcomes anyone to attend.
For more information, please visit metrohealth.org/mmhf.
There will also be free haircuts at each location, refreshments for patients and visitors and a social drivers of health (SDOH) screening administered by the Institute for H.O.P.E.™ team.
Minority women face similar challenges when it comes to health, so MetroHealth is excited to announce that the Minority Women's Health Expo will be debuting September 29 and 30 at the Huntington Convention Center of Cleveland. More details are coming soon.