"Women are far more cognizant about the dangers of breast cancer than men are of prostate cancer. Women are much more likely to talk about the problem than men are and much more likely to do something about it."

An avid skier, John Sias of Hollis, New Hampshire, was returning home from a day on the slopes in January 2001 when his wife Marie asked him casually, "When was the last time you had a physical?"

He shrugged.

Sias, 70 at the time, had always been in good health and ran his own public relations and marketing firm for 20 years before retiring in 1990.

At his wife's urging, he scheduled a physician's visit.

A week following the exam, his doctor told him, "Mr. Sias, I think you should see a urologist. Your PSA is high."

He responded quickly: "What's a urologist? And what's this thing you call a PSA?"

That was the first time Sias had heard of the medical terminology, but not the last.

Sias scheduled an appointment with a urologist, who took a prostate biopsy and asked him to return a week later.

At the next visit, the urologist instructed him, "Why don't you sit down? I have some bad news for you. You have prostate cancer."

His PSA was 11 (normal is under 4) and the biopsy showed that he had cancer in 11 of the 12 samples extracted from his prostate. Then his urologist suggested setting a date for surgery.

Sias was floored by the news. "I had no symptoms," he says, "I had been healthy all my life."

Afterwards, he went home and told his wife. They spent a week in the Florida Keys and began researching everything they could get their hands on related to prostate cancer.

He bought more than a dozen books on prostate cancer, videos, and collected every magazine article he could find.

"I thought 'I've got to treat this prostate cancer thing like I treat a new client,'" he says. "I never studied anything harder than I did prostate cancer."

He spoke with urologists, oncologists and prostate cancer survivors. Eight months later, he decided to proceed with external radiation.

"There are no good answers, no good treatments," he adds. "This is one of the most difficult decisions any man will make. "

Sias underwent 35 days of external radiation and had no ill effects during his recovery. He had prostate seeds implanted 2 months following the radiation and his PSA scores dropped. Once a year, he has his PSA checked and the results have remained low.

A native of Medford, Massachusetts, Sias is a graduate of Colgate University and earned a master's degree in journalism from Boston University. Early in his career, he worked for the Associated Press out of the Boston office and is the author of 7 books. Prior to starting his own public relations and marketing firm, he was the CEO of the Chambers of Commerce in Nashua and Keene, New Hampshire.

Sias has been active in the community throughout his life. He served in the Air Force during the Korean War and was a torch runner in the 2002 Winter Olympics. He was New Hampshire's Big Brother of the Year in 2002 and the Greater Nashua United Way's Volunteer of the Year in 1997. He was elected to a 3-year term as a trustee of the Hollis Library in 2004.

Sias was the first president of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Nashua, where he was a director for 20 years and a Big Brother three times. In the process of adopting his first Little Brother at age 25, he ran into a complicated state law that prohibited him from doing so. He spearheaded a change in the state law and both he and his Little Brother, now legally his son, were interviewed on the Today Show. (He also has two daughters.)

"I'm kind of determined," he says. "I'm pretty fortunate. I've done most of the things I want to do."

In October 2005, Sias was invited to attend a national conference in Chicago of state cancer associations. After talking with association presidents from other states, he was inspired to found the New Hampshire Prostate Cancer Coalition. The organization works closely with the American Cancer Society on prostate cancer initiatives.

In order to focus on the task, Sias decided to step down from his other responsibilities, like acting as the ombudsman for the local daily newspaper.

"Our mission is to reduce the number of New Hampshire men who are dying of prostate cancer," he says. "This is the most important thing in my life."

He created a steering committee with board members and set up a strategic planning session. "These people were all survivors. I think that's the key," he says, "The survivor is physically committed and emotionally committed. These are highly successful people on the board who are used to being successful and don't have time to waste and want to accomplish a lot."

To recognize Prostate Cancer Awareness month in September, the coalition will hold a prostate cancer awareness rally with the American Cancer Society on the statehouse steps in Concord. The coalition is organizing a speaker's bureau with the goal of speaking to all of the 60 rotary clubs in New Hampshire.

Sias speaks often about prostate cancer and hopes to bring about the same awareness for prostate cancer that there is for breast cancer. He notes that the New Hampshire breast cancer coalition has been around for 17 years, whereas the New Hampshire prostate cancer coalition has only been around for 2.

"Women are far more cognizant about the dangers of breast cancer than men are of prostate cancer," he says. "Women are much more likely to talk about the problem than men are and much more likely to do something about it."

To answer general questions about prostate cancer, Sias wrote a book in a Q&A format called "Will You (or Someone You Love) Get Prostate Cancer?" In it, he lays out the basics covering risks to symptoms, diagnosis to treatment.

"We men, we're tough, we're bulletproof," he says. "'Nothing's ever going to happen to us.' This is the way we were brought up. We don't talk about our bodies the same way women do. And once we find out the prostate is located below the belt, that's the last we ever want to hear about it."

He adds: "My wife thought it was a good idea [to see the doctor]. In essence, she saved my life."