Len D. Henry’s Backstory: My Journey with Prostate Cancer and How that Inspired Founding BROTHERS from another father

I am Len, a committed multipotentialite. Yes, I’ve always been a jack of all trades. And thankfully, I’ve mastered some... I run the production company, Delectant Media Inc., and am recognized as a forerunner in converging music, motion, and narrative for the promotion of lifestyle, fashion, and the performance arts. I’ve traveled around the world, creating promotions and events for various organizations and big blue-chip brands. Having won a handful of Much Music Video Awards (MMVAs) early on as a director, I later had the insight to pioneer Canada’s first-ever fashion film, converging it with music in the style of music videos in several collaborations with FashionTelevision, right before the genre was about to explode worldwide. This earned me notable recognition, including by the International Council of Shopping Centres (ICSC) and Bravo!

As an on-camera personality, I created, self-produced, and hosted a digital style series called StreetSeen for Quebecor and appeared in other gun-for-hire hosting gigs across national broadcast networks. Most recently, together with a team of super-talented Canadian creators, we launched the MODECANADAROCKS fashion music festival, a multidisciplinary platform with a firm commitment to promote diverse Canadians and their businesses’ success in music, fashion, and the arts. Ironically, visionary, if I do say so myself, considering all that is happening right now, south of our borders.

After months of tests, on a May 2024 phone call, my spontaneous, worry-free life ground to a screeching halt. I heard words from my doctor no man ever wants to hear: “You’ve got prostate cancer.”

I’d been experiencing symptoms for some time, but like most men, I ignored them. The signs worsened, so my physician, Dr. William Barrie, ordered a full work-up, which led to a sobering prognosis: “I really think you have prostate cancer.” “You guys are much more prone to this.” You guys? Black guys, who knew. Dr. Barrie immediately referred me to Dr. Piotr Zareba, a Specialist in Urologic Oncology at Juravinski Cancer Care Centre in Hamilton, where I currently live. “Why the hell didn’t I get checked sooner!?” Dr. Zareba’s prescribed biopsy confirmed my greatest fear: prostate cancer! And earth-shattering advice: “You should get it treated. It’s not something I’d wait on.”

I tried my level best to take the news in stride, but behind my shaking in the boots, fake bravado, there was cold, gnawing dread rattling me to the core. “How will my life change?” “Will I now only be half a man?” and the toughest one of all: “Am I going to die?”

Growing up with my maternal family, I knew nothing concrete about my biological father’s medical history. So, I reached out to my cousin Maxine, a nurse in New York. “Did Sam have it?” She soon revealed, “Yes, your father had it and so did my dad, and both our grandfather as well.” Consoling me, “Don’t worry cuz. It’s very treatable.”

Empty, angry, and overwhelmed, I turned to the internet, but found only confusing clinical jargon, jarring statistics, sterile videos, and little to no information specific to me, a Black Canadian man. I soon enough learnt that statistically, worldwide, Black men are “doubly prone and 70% more likely to die” from the malignancy. In my panicked search for answers, I craved reassurance from authentic voices like mine—real men from all walks of life, sharing their experiences, vulnerabilities, and their fears, their treatments, their recoveries. I needed to learn firsthand from their brotherly experience, their reality, their advice. Nothing. This void became my call to action…

After carefully weighing options, diligently quizzing multiple specialists, I chose high-dose radiation in the summer of 2024. And it was over the course of the numbing, two-week procedure, and the subsequent months of intensely painful healing, that I ultimately concretized BROTHERS From Another Father—a borderless initiative that helps men open up about our private battles with prostate cancer, confront stigma, demystify the disease, and share lifesaving techniques, to ensure we're all better prepared for what may come. Though our fathers may be different, we are all in this together, like one big family, maybe not so happy, a fully connected one, nonetheless.

My PSA dropped dramatically from its earlier high of 18 down to 1.1 by year’s end and was declared “lucky” by the attending oncologist’s assistant. This has not necessarily been the fate for several of the men with whom I have more recently traded prostate cancer horror stories. I am not as I was, that is for certain, and I do know cancer can recur, so I now lead a life focused on healthy eating, fitness, caution, and hope. Deftly navigating treatment and outcomes, striving for peace of mind, is what BROTHERS is all about.

Contrasted against the horrors of America or countries less wealthy, unable, or unwilling to provide proper healthcare for their populations, I am privileged and proud to be Canadian. Prostate cancer is the most common cancer in men, other than skin cancer, and the risks of incidence and death are wide-ranging, dependent on race or where one lives. And critically important, how do social determinants of health: race, family, migration, and lifestyle factors (diet, weight, height, fitness) impact outcomes?

I get it, men typically prefer not to share their feelings and vulnerabilities, fearing they may appear weak or emasculated. But this very sharing can save you a lot of angst and worry. This sharing can save your life. It is my hope that BROTHERS will serve as a trustworthy ally, a reliable resource for men on varied prostate cancer journeys, as well as their loved ones, their partners, their children, and the people who care deeply about them. Prostate cancer is typically passed down to men from our fathers. Those of us who continue to delay getting tested, particularly men who are predisposed, need to do so right away and with regularity.

Please take the opportunity to peruse BROTHERSfaf.com for links to expert tips and opinions, and importantly, authentic, word-of-mouth survivor stories. I personally invite you to share yours. Sign up for email updates, follow our socials, and share this with your friends. This is an open invitation to actively be part of The BROTHERS Community, helping each other reciprocally. Let’s come together to save each other’s lives.

Please also be sure to DONATE To the BROTHERS fundraising campaign in support of The Canadian Cancer Society and the charitable organization’s efforts to help advance prostate cancer research. Your donation can make a life-saving difference.

And stay tuned! There’s so much more to come.

Humbly,

-LenDH