It's an attention-grabbing line and the name of a new campaign in the Mohawk Valley.

“I'm doing this search on Google and I'm like, 'There's nothing here. How can this be?'" said campaign co-founder Tim Reed.

Reed was the face of the Boilermaker for a decade, stepping down as President about two-years ago. Since then, he's become a cancer survivor, affecting others including local radio personality Bill Keeler in the process.

"Tim inspired me,” said Keeler. “I got the colonoscopy done and felt that everything was good until they called me two weeks later and said, 'It's cancerous'. It was a pretty tough phone call."

Reed and Keeler were treated successfully for cancer in the last year. Now, with The Community Foundation of Herkimer and Oneida Counties, they're trying to help others through a new project called, "Real Men Get Tested"; a message they say is missing.

 

 

 

“Women are great at taking care of themselves and knowing their bodies, guys just seem to be like me, a typical guy. 'I'm going to avoid this for as long as I can, maybe just maybe it will go away.' And clearly that didn't work," said Keeler.

So they're launching a media campaign through next Father's Day, and are reaching out to a local sports team.

"We want to go where guys are, right? I mean at the end of the day we've got to try to figure out in regards to it, and drag them in, and say, 'Come on. This is not that hard. Tim and Bill figured it out. You can," said Reed.

Both Keeler and Reed are both well-known in the Mohawk Valley, and the hope is for that to help propel the message.

"They are putting 99 percent of the work on their shoulders,” said Nick Grimmer, director of the Community Foundation of Herkimer and Oneida Counties. “Even before today, they've been out talking about this project, meeting with community leaders, and meeting with business leaders."

Reed donated $25,000 to the campaign, and media production work is being done voluntarily by Keeler.

"Maybe we ultimately save somebody's life out there,” said Keeler. “If we can do that one time then we have done our job."