Having overcome cancer twice, he has now taken on the role of a model at a social evening

Among the eleven participants in the show, the only member of the male gender. “I feel very good in this kind of company, I don’t have stage fright,” said an almost 80-year-old man with a smile on his lips to Novinkám a Práva in front of the promenade, whose vigor could be envied by much younger generations.

“I had colon cancer in 2004. I underwent a classic operation, followed by preventive examinations at the oncology clinic. In 2016 I was diagnosed with prostate cancer. That’s when I decided to turn to the proton center in Prague 8 and see if I would be a suitable patient,” said Mikulčák in costume from the opera Její pastorkyňa.

“That was my very reasonable decision, and one of the best, because the proton beam treatment method is far better than the usual method,” he stated. The treatment lasted two years, since then he has been fine.

Photo: Oncology Foundation for the 21st Century

The participants of the show brought out models from the operas.

There he met Jitka Abrahámová, emeritus primary care physician and head of the Faculty Thomayer Hospital and the 1st Faculty of Medicine, Charles University in Prague, who currently works as a leading clinical oncologist at the Proton Therapy Center Czech in Prague and holds the role of chairperson of the Board of Trustees of the foundation fund.

101-year-old Czech woman: “I don’t know what a hamburger is, but I go with the times.” She uses a computer and a smartphone

Style

“I don’t know who advised her that she could freshen up the fashion show, which until then was only attended by her breast cancer patients, with a male element. When she turned to me, I nodded,” he told how he found himself in the role of a model. For the fourth time this year.

He admitted to Novinky and Práv that when he heard the cruel verdict again, he remained an absolute optimist. “I knew I had to beat the bastard. I didn’t give in,” says an enthusiastic beekeeper from Prague and a traveler in the Czech Republic and other countries.

The Oncology Foundation for the 21st Century was established in the early 1990s

One of the activities is the Social Self-Consciousness for Every Day evenings, which remind people of the seriousness of the disease and look for ways to face it. Originally, models on the catwalk shone in dresses from fashion salons.

“They also showed off their clothes so that even with their handicap it could be seen that they can do anything and have self-confidence,” the doctor pointed out. But then the clothing company went bankrupt. “It was a chore to find salons, Luděk Vele, the soloist of the National Theater who sang for us, came, and with him the theater costumes,” she explained the current outfit.

Breast cancer is the most common malignant disease in women, with 7,600 newly diagnosed cases in the Czech Republic in 2022. Among the opposite sex, prostate cancer leads the way, with over 8,000 new men dealing with it in the same year. And the cases are still increasing. “What is good news is that the mortality rate is not increasing proportionally,” assures Abrahámová, who has been working in active medicine for 57 years. According to her, on the one hand, thanks to advanced medicine, and mainly thanks to screening programs that catch the disease in its early stages.

“I wanted to do something that has a big perspective and at the same time is not completely traditional. At that time, my classmates thought that I wanted to do oncology,” smiles the woman who was behind the successful treatment of one of the worst tumors at the time, testicular cancer. “That was fascinating. Back then, 99 percent of men died, and today 99 percent are alive,” explains Abrahámová, who comes to the proton center two days a week. “I can’t imagine being at home. I would bite,” she laughs.