More than 120 Mount Sinai Health System faculty and staff completed more than 6,000 push-ups at the recent fourth annual Push-Up for Prostate Cancer Challenge held in Guggenheim Pavilion. The event, which commemorated Prostate Cancer Awareness Month in September, challenged each individual to complete 29 pushups in honor of the 29,000 men who die from prostate cancer in the United States each year.
“This very important event reflects Mount Sinai’s commitment to prostate cancer,” said Dennis S. Charney, MD, Anne and Joel Ehrenkranz Dean, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, and President for Academic Affairs, Mount Sinai Health System, who kicked off the challenge by completing 96 push-ups.
The first-place team trophy was awarded to the Department of Urology at The Mount Sinai Hospital, which completed 775 push-ups. Individual awards were given to the top male and female, as well as to the individual who completed the most modified push-ups. First place honors were given to John Mendez, Customer Service Representative, Department of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery (male, 101 pushups); Daphne Semet, MBA, Vice Chair of Administration and Finance, Department of Pathology, Molecular and Cell-Based Medicine (female, 102 push-ups); and Mena Singh, MPA, Senior Accountant, Department of Finance (modified-style, 106 push-ups).
Push-Up Challenge Brings Awareness to Prostate Health The program also offered information about prostate cancer and provided cancer screenings and risk consultations. “Prostate cancer is one of the most common cancers, but it does not produce any symptoms, and the only way you can go after it is by being proactive,” said Ash Tewari, MBBS, MCh, the Kyung Hyun Kim, MD Chair in Urology, Mount Sinai Health System, who led the event.