Each year, Safeway, a major-chain grocery store, raises money for prostate cancer and breast cancer. They do it in a very effective way. As your groceries are being rung up at the check-out stand, the cashier asks if you would like to add a dollar to your grocery bill total for cancer research. Because it is seldom possible to get out of a grocery store without spending several hundred dollars, adding one more dollar for a worthy cause is easy to agree to do. Safeway devotes one month to prostate cancer and one month to breast cancer.

On June 5, Safeway formally launched its annual Prostate Cancer Awareness Month fundraiser. Now in its sixth year, the company has raised more than $12.7 million for prostate cancer research. Safeway's goal this year is to raise $5 million dollars. In addition to raising funds for prostate cancer research and treatment, Safeway is launching an early detection and awareness campaign. The stores will be offering discounted prostate cancer screening. Involving a simple blood test to check the level of prostate specific antigen, PSA, in the blood stream, Safeway will charge $10 dollars for a test that typically runs about $35 dollars. Facts about prostate cancer will be printed in the weekly sales circulars. A message can be heard on the company's in-store radio network and is printed on quart containers of Lucerne brand milk and on paper grocery bags. A comprehensive campaign if you ask me.