Though he’s retired, former WBZ-TV journalist Charles Austin is still delivering an important news bulletin — the need for men over age 45 to get their prostate-specific antigen (PSA) score, a key prostate cancer predictor. (Margarita Persico photo)
By Margarita Persico
Rev. Arthur T. Gerald, Jr., interim pastor at Twelfth Baptist Church in Roxbury, isn’t the only preacher there on Sunday mornings. Sometimes, the congregants preach to him.
One such preacher was Charles Austin, a church member and health activist that has advocated prostate cancer and cardiovascular disease prevention efforts for 12 years.
Ten years ago, Austin persuaded Gerald to get his prostate checked for cancer.
“Because of his insistence, I became insistent with my physician, who did not feel I was at risk. And because of Charlie, we were able to identify this disease before it became deadly,” said Gerald, also a dean at Salem State College.
