Involving the community in the fight against disease has become common in recent years with high profile events around breast cancer and the AIDS walk.  The Underwear Affair is hoping to bring this same profile to the more delicate issue of "below the waist" cancers.

Cancers such as colo-rectal, prostate, testicular, penile, uterine, cervical, and bowel cancer, as well as bladder and kidney, are often seen as "taboo." With the work celebrities, such as Bill Brooks, have done around prostate cancer, these cancers are slowly coming out of the closet, as it were.

This year marks the first year The Underwear Affair (June 9th in Calgary, June 16th in Edmonton) is being held in Alberta, and has taken its inspiration from an event sponsored by the BC Cancer Agency and the BC Cancer Foundation.

Stacey Scott, Director of Annual Giving with the Alberta Cancer Foundation, said one of the objectives is to highlight not only what the various cancers are but to raise awareness around prevention and screening procedures.

"With these sorts of cancers it’s always been kind of taboo to talk about them because they are in private areas of our bodies and it’s embarrassing to talk about those areas," she said.

Not only is it embarrassing to talk about them but too often people are embarrassed to have the screening procedures done.  Men, especially, tend to be uncomfortable going in for the prostate exam simply because of what they believe it involves.

"It’s actually a very simple and painless procedure," Scott says, while sympathizing with the discomfort some men have over the idea of a doctor probing inside their anus to check the prostate.

Women are not immune to the embarrassment or the fear of discomfort, or even pain, especially when it comes to cervical and uterine examinations.  However, women’s health information has for many years stressed the need for annual pap smears and other such tests, whereas until recently there has not been a corresponding emphasis on men’s exams.

The Underwear Affair is designed to reduce the stigma of talking about such cancers and to present the awareness in a non-threatening way.

"We want people to have as much fun as possible.  Our thinking is, if someone is brave enough to run through the streets of Calgary and Edmonton in their underwear, hopefully people will be brave enough to go in for screening," says Scott.

Rules around what one can wear are quite relaxed.  The only restrictions are it has to be legal and it should be comfortable.

"The route, which we are keeping secret until just before the event, is a 10-kilometre run or a 5-kilometre walk," says Scott.  "So participants need to ensure proper footwear and be comfortable. The only other restrictions we have is we ask - for safety reasons - people not bring pets along, not do the route in rollerblades or on skateboards.  And while children are welcome of course, not to have kids in strollers, although we encourage people in wheelchairs to participate."

The stats around "below the waist cancers" are sobering:  In 2004, 1,515 Albertans were diagnosed with colo-rectal cancer (856 were men and 659 were women). Of these, colo-rectal cancer accounts for 12.36 per cent of all Alberta cancer deaths.  Prostate cancer accounted for 11.21 per cent of all male cancer deaths in Alberta.  Testicular cancer accounted for 0.28 per cent of all Alberta male cancer deaths, and there were no stats on penile cancer.

In women, ovarian cancer accounted for 5.29 per cent of all female cancer deaths in Alberta.  In 2004, cervical cancer accounted for 1.45 per cent of all female cancer deaths.  In the same period, endometrium, or uterine cancer accounted for 2.05 per cent of all female cancer deaths.

Kidney cancer accounted for 2.49 per cent of all Alberta cancer deaths, and bladder cancer accounted for 2.37 percent.

In total, "below the waist" cancers accounted for nearly 50 per cent (49.86) of all cancer-related deaths in Alberta.  Clearly, far more attention needs to be paid to these cancers.

"Fundraising is important, no doubt," states Scott.  "One in three Albertans is touched by cancer – either through a family member, friend, or going through it themselves."

To drive the point home even further, the Alberta Cancer Foundation, which is the charitable arm ("we prefer to call it the charitable heart," says Scott) of the Alberta Cancer Board, will have information booths at both the actual event and at the EXPOsed After Party.

While the identity of the entertainers at the EXPOsed Party is also being kept secret for now, Scott promises it will be an event to remember.  "I can say there will be lots of great music, lots of great food, lots of great underwear and lots of great prizes," she chuckles.