The Tribune

ON this second day of a new year, this column should be chockablock with self-deprecating humour, verbal frolicking with second day soliloquys – New Year’s resolutions I’ve already figured out how to break, laughable twists on goals it would take magic to make a reality, but, forgive me, I can’t go to those light-hearted places today.

I am consumed by the sad and shocking death of Dr Darius Unwala and the warning it must sound to every man in The Bahamas.

Dr Unwala was a urologist, one of the most brilliant doctors The Bahamas has ever produced. Before he became the first Bahamian to hold a senior post at the Glickman Institute at Cleveland Clinic Ohio, he had declined offers from several top hospitals. He finally accepted the prestigious Ohio position where he was invited to help further develop the urology programme already considered number one or two in America, believing the knowledge he gained would help him treat Bahamians when he returned home.

Hard decision to leave PMH, Doctor’s

The decision to take leave from PMH and Doctor’s Hospital was a difficult one, a friend told me back in December of 2018 as Dr Unwala prepared to leave, wife (also a doctor) and children with him, though his heart was still at home.

“Darius has dedicated his academic career, his knowledge, his medical life to trying to find better ways to treat those who suffer from kidney and urology-related conditions,” the friend said.

“Given the extraordinary rate of diabetes in this country, the expense and nature of dialysis, he has always searched for a kinder, gentler way and perhaps his exposure to a facility that can afford the kind of equipment that is not available in a community as small as the Bahamas will strengthen his ability even more and allow him to return home with greater knowledge and some of the answers we all seek to deal with the scourge of kidney-related diseases.”

Only The Bahamas will never benefit from the knowledge Dr Darius Unwala gained. In late December, the young and already beloved doctor, model husband, father and son – a man who could serve as the role model for the Bahamian male – succumbed to the very disease he was trying to cure, prostate cancer.

How could this have happened

How, we ask, could this be the case of a man considered a leading authority on the disease? Here was a medical professional considered among the premier reviewers of academic medical literature, the author of numerous editorials on urology, a top reviewer for the Urology Gold Journal, a designation reserved for a select few.

Here was a man at the top of his game, board certified in the United States, a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons in Canada, a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons, a member of the Royal College of Surgeons of England, a member of the Medical Association of the Bahamas and the Bahamas Medical Council.

How could he, of all people, fall prey to the one cancer that, if detected early enough, is 100 percent treatable?

The thing about prostate cancer is that it can occur without warning signals and when you are young and unsuspecting…

And the other thing about doctors is that they are so busy looking after others they often forget to look after themselves or as my dear friend Youlanda Deveaux put it, “so busy lighting a fire for others, they forget to keep themselves warm.” Selflessness has its costs.

A simple blood test

While we mourn his passing and grieve with his parents, his wife, his children – an amazing family every one of them – we need to find a way to make a difference.

Ask Dr Gregory Pinto, a urologist and familiar voice on radio, or Dr Arlington Lightbourne, founder of Bahamas Wellness and Eleuthera Wellness Hospital who every September, prostate cancer month, sends representatives into the field in Eleuthera to construction sites, restaurants, even to bars to urge men to take advantage of one of the free PSA screenings provided by Sebas Bastian and Island Luck Foundation.

Prostate cancer, the number one cancer killer in The Bahamas, need never take another life. Early detection will lead to full remission.

Those medical experts and others will tell you a simple blood test is all you need to prevent prostate cancer from becoming a death warrant as it was for Sir Lynden Pindling.

Annual testing creates a baseline and tests thereafter pick up any elevated level of PSA or increase that would trigger an alarm.

Just a simple blood test, a prick, more accurate they say, than the physical exam men were once subjected to. If there is an indication of a significantly high PSA reading, a scan or biopsy may be called for. But take the first step.

In Nassau and in Eleuthera, Island Luck Foundation provides funding for hundreds of free prostate cancer screenings.

Men, please – make Darius Unwala’s life and legacy stand for something as special as he was, and get screened. It takes less time than drinking a coffee or tea, or chugging a cold one and it could save your life.

To Mom Stephanie Unwala and all the family, may you find peace in the knowledge that Darius contributed to the wealth of knowledge of the world of medicine, that in his years at PMH and Doctor’s Hospital, he saved lives and eased pain, and in this world, he was a friend to all, a gentle, brilliant soul who never forgot how to smile or bring sunshine into every room he entered.

Brigitte Bardot and The Bahamas

Speaking of those we remember as a new year begins, when Brigitte Bardot’s death at the age of 91 was announced on December 28, a flurry of headlines reawakened interest in the woman who had disappeared from the public eye more than 40 years before.

The stories that filled pages recounted the tale of a French model, a woman of breathtaking beauty, an actress and singer who helped redefine the role women play on the screen in movies like Babette Goes to War, And God Created Woman, and Viva Maria, before turning her back on fame to dedicate her life to animal protection.

Other than a revealing piece about possible regrets over her estrangement from her only child, a son now a successful businessman in his mid-60s, the stories sounded pretty much the same describing Bardot as a four-time married woman who brought the same passion to animal activism as she had to her career before it.

They reminded us of her character – a sometimes rebellious spirit who spoke her mind regardless of the cost, fiercely independent, a star whose wit and talent saved her from being defined as a sex symbol despite beauty so raw it was impossible to ignore – the naturally pouty lips, the figure, the blonde hair that could do no wrong whether blown by the wind or in an updo that defied gravity.

Cary Grant, Jack Nicklaus, Roy Bowe

What none of the stories revealed was her love of The Bahamas. Bardot built a cottage in Great Harbour Cay in the late 1960s, the days when the Berry Islands getaway was the private hideaway for the rich and famous.

Stars like Cary Grant danced the night away in the magnificent two-story glass and wooden clubhouse with stunning views and golfers like Jack Nicklaus played on an 18-hole course designed by Joe Lee.

Among those who starred was a Bahamian, the late Roy Bowe, The Bahamas’ first professional golfer and a man with movie star good looks, as handsome as his good friend Sir Sidney Poitier, but regrettably unavailable to the ladies as he was happily married.

The story of Great Harbour Cay and the Berry Islands is not complete without a look back at the days that were — and the passing of the original Queen B was a reminder of life and escape long ago on a secret, almost sacred, Family Island.