Lacey Mayor Andy Ryder announces he has cancer at city council meeting

Lacey Mayor Andy Ryder is being treated for prostate cancer, he announced during Tuesday’s city council meeting.

During the meeting, the council read aloud a “prostate cancer awareness month” proclamation, with each council member reading a portion of the proclamation.

When it came to Ryder’s turn, he read his portion aloud and then made his personal announcement.

“This proclamation in particular is sitting very close to home, because as I speak, I’m currently up in Seattle after my second day of treatment for prostate cancer,” said Ryder, who was participating in the meeting remotely.

Ryder said he was diagnosed earlier this year and that it was detected early.

“When I found out I had prostate cancer, I kept it to myself because at first I didn’t know what my options were,” he said. “You hear that you have cancer and you don’t know what the next step is. After lots of consultation, I finally decided on a course of treatment, but I still decided to keep it to myself, because I wasn’t sure about what the outcome was going to be.”

When he learned it was prostate cancer awareness month, he decided he wanted to make his experience a learning moment.

“I did not think this could be a possibility,” said Ryder, who recently turned 50. “I thought this is something you have to worry about when you get older, but this is real, and so take the time, if you’re a man, take the time to go get checked. All it takes is a simple blood check, blood tests, and you can find out where you’re at.”

It’s much easier to do that than to ignore symptoms, which could result in unfortunate results, Ryder said.

“If one person can go out there and get tested and catch it early and save their life, then this time has been well spent for me,” he said. “I’m happy to make that trade.”

The proclamation included some statistics about prostate cancer:

▪ It’s one of the most commonly diagnosed cancers among men in the country.

▪ 1 in 8 men are affected by the cancer in their lifetime.

▪ Although 34,000 men die annually from the cancer, early detection typically results in a near 100% survival rate.

Before the meeting ended, Deputy Mayor Malcolm Miller shared some parting words for the mayor.

“Mayor, we are with you,” he said. “We are continually here to support you, so we appreciate you being able to make it tonight, but know that our support is with you at all times.”