Prime Distributors recently made a donation to the St. Maarten Medical Center ahead of their Prostate Cancer Awareness event taking place this Saturday, September 25th from 9:00am – 3:00pm. The event marks the resumption of SMMC’s annual Prostate and Breast Cancer screening campaign in collaboration with partners the Positive and Elektralytes Foundations.
“Early detection saves lives and as a healthcare institution, we have a responsibility to serve the community and provide curative, palliative and preventative care. Taking all necessary precautions to mitigate any potential spread of COVID-19, we’ve decided to resume our prostate and breast cancer screenings after some inactivity due to the pandemic. We are extremely happy that this year Prime Distributors are generously supporting us in our efforts in the fight against prostate and breast cancer. Prime has always been willing to assist SMMC in our efforts to ensure and safeguard the health and wellbeing of our patients, via donations to our community outreach events, donations to our staff or donations to our wards, and for that, we’re extremely grateful”, said Shari de Riggs, SMMC’s Communications Officer.
Speaking on Prime Distributor’s contribution to the event, Brand Manager Graziella Zimmerman remarked “Prime Distributors is happy to be a part of this wonderful and much needed initiative. The health and wellness of our community is extremely important, especially in these unpredictable times. We urge everyone to come our and take part in these screenings, as early detection saves lives. We express sincere gratitude to the Elektralytes and Positive Foundations as well as SMMC for putting together these screenings”.
“Even though we are living in such uncertain times, we will always try our best to help our community”, concluded Zimmerman.
In addition to prostate cancer screenings for men, SMMC will offer blood pressure and glucose monitoring for men and women and CPS and the Ministry of VSA will host a COVID-19 vaccination pop-up at SMMC. Healthcare professionals such as Doctors, Pharmacists and Infection Control Practitioners will also be on hand to provide information and answer any questions about the COVID-19 vaccine.
To avoid long lines and allow for proper social distancing, pre-registering for the prostate cancer screening is strongly encouraged. Men over the age of 45 who have not had a Prostate-Specific Antigen (PSA) test within the last two years are asked to email urology@smmc.sx with their name, date of birth and phone number to register. In light of the pandemic, only a limited number of walk-ins will be facilitated.
To ensure the safety of all attendees and volunteers, SMMC’s universal masking policy remains in effect and will be enforced. Persons making use of the prostate cancer screenings and the health checks will also be subjected to a temperature check and SMMC’s COVID-19 questionnaire.
SMMC kindly asks that persons who are experiencing flu-like symptoms such as fever, chills, headaches, difficulty breathing, fatigue, muscle or body aches, loss of taste or smell, sore throat, congestion or runny nose, vomiting and diarrhea avoid attending the event but encourage them to make an appointment once they are no longer experiencing symptoms.
Prostate cancer screening is available year-round at SMMC’s Urology Department and appointments can be made by calling + 1 (721) 543-1111 extension 1378, 1379 or 1307.
SMMC also plans to resume their annual Breast Cancer screenings in October which will also feature a COVID-19 vaccination pop-up and a health check corner.