"I have a purpose for being here a little bit longer. To the degree I can make a difference, I'm going to do it."

A few years ago, Paul Tutwiler didn't give much thought to cancer. He was young, busy, with a fulfilling career in urban renewal and two active toddlers at home. Then a routine physical changed – and saved – his life.

It was May of 2001, and Tutwiler had just turned 40 the previous December. The milestone prompted him to visit his doctor for a check-up, even though he felt completely healthy.

Because Tutwiler is African American, the doctor urged him to have a prostate examination, and get his blood checked for levels of prostate-specific antigen, or PSA; high levels can signal prostate cancer, and African Americans tend to develop the disease at younger ages than men of other races.

"I listened to him, thankfully," Tutwiler laughs. "I had no reason to suspect that anything was going on inside my body."

But something was. Tutwiler had prostate cancer, though he wasn't experiencing any symptoms.

The first clue came when his blood work showed a PSA level slightly under 5 nanograms/milliliter. A PSA level below 4 is considered normal, while men with a PSA between 4 and 10 have about a 25% chance of having prostate cancer. Other conditions, like an enlarged prostate, can also cause PSA levels to rise.

His doctor recommended he visit a specialist for further evaluation.

"I certainly credit him for his wisdom and for what I feel saved my life, because otherwise I wouldn't have found this," Tutwiler says.

Tutwiler took his physician's advice and consulted a urologist, who recommended a biopsy. The procedure was "extremely uncomfortable," Tutwiler remembers, but ultimately crucial.

Although the urologist had discussed the possibility of prostate cancer, Tutwiler had fully expected to be told that his condition was benign. The diagnosis, he says, was "a shock." How could he have cancer when he didn't feel ill?

"I was hoping that it was an incorrect diagnosis, I didn't want to think it was accurate."

Tutwiler looked to his family for consolation and support. "I needed a lot of support," he admits, "because I was afraid."

Fear translated into action. He consulted two other doctors, and began learning all he could about the disease and how it can be treated.

"I wanted to understand my options better," Tutwiler says. "Because I had no experience with the disease at all, I had to get a bit of an education with respect to what the outcome of various treatments would be."

Treatments for prostate cancer, which include surgery and radiation therapy in the early stages, carry a risk of side effects, including long-term impotence and incontinence. As a young man, Tutwiler was concerned with maintaining his quality of life.

Ultimately, he chose surgery to remove the entire prostate gland because he thought it would give him the best chance of maintaining his lifestyle in the long run. So far he's been satisfied with the results.

Recovering from the surgery, however, was difficult, both physically and emotionally.

"You're trying to have a degree of dignity, but you feel uncomfortable," he remembers.

Tutwiler wore adult diapers for six months until he regained control of his bladder. He had to relearn basic physical skills like walking and using his stomach muscles.

Perhaps most difficult, however, was having to scale back his horseplay with his young children. "They've always climbed and jumped on me, and I couldn't do it," he says. "It just broke my heart not to be able to continue that with them."

The experience made him reevaluate what was most important in his life.

In a fit of what he calls "paranoia" before his surgery, Tutwiler wrote goodbye letters to his mother, children, and siblings – "things that I always wanted to say" -- to be delivered in case he didn't pull through the procedure. Afterward, though, he tore up the missives, determined to actually do all the things he'd said he wished he could.

"It's like being given a second chance, and making it count is what I want to do," he says.

Now, he says, he finds more balance between work and family life, spending more time with his children, and treasuring visits and phone calls with other family members.

He's also determined to help others who are facing prostate cancer – or at risk of facing it.

After his diagnosis, Tutwiler says all the men in his family went to get a prostate exam, since men whose brothers or father have the disease are at greater risk of developing it themselves. He has accompanied friends with prostate cancer on doctor visits to lend support and comfort.

"Now I think I'm valuing each day, each moment, each experience in a new way," he says. "I want to share that in hopes it would make a difference in someone else's life."