Santoro Foundation Golf Outing Raises Funds & Awareness for Prostate Cancer

September is Prostate Cancer Awareness Month. Not only does Prostate Cancer Awareness Month afford the opportunity to spread knowledge about prostate cancer to the public, but it also affords the opportunity to reflect on the many great people and families touched by this disease. In this blog, we would like to share the story of Alfred "Gus" Santoro III and The Santoro Foundation.

Shortly after his diagnosis in 2004, Gus Santoro underwent surgery at the Johns Hopkins Hospital to treat his prostate cancer. Gus and his son, Alfred "Fred" Santoro IV, played golf together every summer.  However, that summer – as Gus recovered from surgery – they could not play together. So Fred and his friends played a round of golf in Gus's honor. That round of golf turned into an annual event and the Santoro Foundation in 2006.

Fortunately, Gus remains cancer-free with an excellent quality of life ten years after his diagnosis. Gus credits the eradication of his cancer on annual check-ups and early detection of his disease. Therefore, The Santoro Foundation was started to raise public awareness regarding funding, research, treatment and breakthroughs in the fight against prostate cancer. Funds from the foundation are directed specifically to prostate cancer research and treatment facilities, to increase awareness of prostate cancer, and to recognize selfless people in the community. The Santoro Foundation offers academic scholarships to high school and college students who are active in their communities and giving of their time to help others.

The marquis event of the Santoro Foundation is the annual GUS OPEN charity golf tournament, played every year at The Club at Shannondell outside of Philadelphia. In addition to being an extremely fun event, the golf outing raises funds for prostate cancer research and raises awareness in the community to encourage men to see their doctors for regular check-ups. A full round of golf is followed by a family style dinner and charity auction that features golf and Philadelphia sports franchise memorabilia.

The majority of funds raised by the GUS OPEN are donated to the Brady Urological Institute and each year, the Brady sends a foursome to play in the tournament. Phillip M. Pierorazio, MD, has played in the tournament each of the last four years, "The Gus Open is one of my favorite Brady events of the year. The Santoro's are tremendous in their giving spirit and charitable efforts. It's an honor every year to play golf with them, to speak to their friends and family members about prostate cancer and to thank them for the funds that enable our research."

Adam Kern, Fred Santoro, Gus Santoro, Phillip Pierorazio and Debasish Sundi
at the Santoro Golf Outing, 2012.

Fred Santoro recently told The Alternative Press, "Ever year, doctors form John Hopkins come up, and my family and I have been invited to go down to John Hopkins to participate in their fundraisers, too. Though we are pretty small, our average donation is $5- to 6,000 to John Hopkins, and I'm sure they receive $10,000, $100,000 from other donors, but they treat us like any other donor. They send doctors up to play; they see what we need. They're very supportive."

"It's a good thing we're better at prostate cancer research and treatment than we are at golf," Pierorazio jokes.

The Gus Open is held every year at the end of the summer. You can read more about Fred's interview and the Santoro Foundation at: 
http://thealternativepress.com/towns/lower-providence/articles/santoro-foundation-to-host-saturday-golf-outing

You can support the Santoro Foundation on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SantoroFoundation