Hello everyone!! I shaved for the LAST time Friday morning – and it’s all for @zeroCancer! Me and other police officers are going to get real scruffy for the next 30 days as we raise awareness and money to END PROSTATE CANCER.

As some of you already know I lost my father Antonio R. Vazquez to prostate cancer on December 14, 2017. There were no signs, he had no pain, and he’d always been a healthy person that almost never got sick. My dad was kind of old school, so he would only go see a doctor if there was something pretty mayor going on. Around his late fifties he didn’t have health care for some years because he had lost a job with a construction company and was self-employed during those years. Once he was able to receive Medicare benefits he scheduled an annual physical to make sure everything was ok with his health. After a few tests we received the devastating news that he had prostate cancer. We also found out that because it went undetected for several years it had spread outside the prostate. We immediately started an aggressive chemotherapy regime to contain the damage. He was able to fight the cancer for a few years. Later we were told that the cancer had metastasized and it had spread to other organs within his body. At this time he was not doing so well so I decided to relocate my father from Puerto Rico to the Northern Virginia area to live with me and care for him. I got the best doctors in the NOVA area and started his chemotherapy treatments again. Many chemotherapy treatments, doctor visits, radiation treatments later I was told that there was nothing else they could do for him and he was placed in hospice. A few days later he was gone.

12/14/17 was the day that day I lost my dad, my hero, my best friend, my confident and my #1 fan. The frustrating thing about that is that maybe it could have been prevented with early detection. I NEVER thought in a million years that I would lose my father in my thirties, especially to something like prostate cancer. I have never experience that kind of loss before in my life. I am hoping that by sharing my story and joining the “Grow&Give” mission I might be able to create awareness and maybe, just maybe someone else’s father, brother, uncle, son life will be spared. If just one person doesn’t have to endure the indescribable loss I suffered, it will be worth it.

We are not planning to shave until we meet our goal of $3,000 so yeah…..things are about to get real hairy. GrowandGive.Every 15 minutes, a man dies of prostate cancer. One in eight will be diagnosed — nearly 250,000 fathers, sons, brothers, partners, and friends in the U.S. this year alone.

I'm putting down the razor and picking up the cause by participating in the Grow & Give campaign with ZERO - The End of Prostate Cancer. Together, we can end the suffering of prostate cancer, but I need your support!

Your donation will help fund research, patient programs that go directly to helping men and their families, free testing, educational programs, and more.

Please support me by making a tax-deductible contribution today! You'll feel proud knowing that you're helping keep families together and saving lives.