That some people, often ones who are well known and have survived cancer themselves, can go on the speaker's circuit, to recount their experiences before audiences interested in what they have to say, is a common occurrence.
Frequently the ones who do this are famous actors or athletes, which makes their accounts of their own cancer experiences especially interesting to many audiences.
The presentations of such well-known speakers are usually in the form of I-had-cancer-and-here's-my-story, usually ending with an encouraging message of hope for any of the audience who may be facing a cancer expererience of their own. ("If I can beat it, you can too!").
Perhaps not surprisingly, the web has numerous websites in the form of "speaker bureaus" for cancer speakers and those who want to hear them. These sites are ready, for a fee, to pair up those wanting a cancer speaker, preferably a famous person, for some event or such, and willing to pay for the speaking services of such a person.
Perhaps groups such as corporations, large businesses, universities, prestigious clubs, and the like.
But such groups had better be ready to pay.
Because even a casual perusal of some of the cancer speaker websites reveals that the cost of hiring such speakers, presumably even for a single speech (for maybe an hour or even less?), can be jaw-dropping.
Presumably it's a market-driven thing, and cancer speakers charge what the cancer speaker market will bear, but, still, as some of the typical ads on these websites attest, those market-driven fees for such speakers are gasp-worthy.
Can you say five to six-figure speaking fees?
Obviously it would be an organization with rather deep pockets that would be able and willing to enlist the speaking services of such persons at the rates that they charge.
Examples of some of these speakers and their certainly high-end fees are in the following links. (Again, many of the ads in these links are for famous actors or athletes, or people well-known for some other reason).
General cancer speakers:
https://www.allamericanspeakers.com/lists/inspiring-cancer-survivors.phphttps://www.executivespeakers.com/speakers-by-topic/cancerProstate cancer speakers:
https://www.allamericanspeakers.com/searchresults/prostate+cancer#gsc.tab=0&gsc.q=prostate%20cancer&gsc.sort=So it would seem likely that if any of these speakers do get the chance to speak to an audience about
cancer, their own experience with it or generally, then they will be rather well compensated for doing so.
But you know what? If any of us were inclined to do so, we would surely be just as qualified to deliver a meaningful speech on some aspect of dealing with cancer, especially PCa, to an audience that might benefit from hearing what we would have to say about
it.
No, we probably wouldn't be getting a hefty paycheck for doing so, or maybe any paycheck, but doing it might leave us with a feeling of satisfaction that maybe we benefited someone who was helped from hearing about
our experience.
We might speak to a local group in our area, perhaps a social club, a school class, members of a gym, a reserve military unit, lots of such groups.
Again, maybe we wouldn't get paid for doing so, but our speech might just make a difference in the life of someone in the audience there listening, facing his own cancer journey, especially if it's with PCa.
OTOH, speaking for myself, even though my own PCa experience of RT and follow-up was rather routine, I still imagine, after giving it some thought, that if someone ever did make me an attractive enough offer, I think I could be persuaded into giving a half-hour speech to an adoring audience somewhere, which would then give me a standing ovation, along with, say, a $20,000 check. Yes, I think I could be talked into doing that.
But seriously, taking the opportunity to address even a small local group about
our cancer experience, a group such as one of the ones mentioned above, if we were ever interested in doing so, might just be a valuable contribution we could make to our community.
BTW, here's a good summary of how, generally, the "money for a speech" industry grew in the U.S over the years:
https://priceonomics.com/why-do-famous-people-get-paid-s250000-to-give-a/It tells us, among other things:
"Simply put, if you want a particular group of people to attend an event, hiring a famous person is the way to go. “Everyone wants to say, ‘I had lunch with Michael Lewis yesterday,’” Don Epstein, who represented the best-selling author, told Bloomberg in 2014. “It might be you and 500 other people, but it still happened ... "For some organizations, the speech is almost secondary,” says Jim Keppler, the president and founder of Keppler Speakers. “They are looking to bring in a VIP to schmooze at receptions, pose for pictures, and sign autographs” ... The rewards to attracting the right people in the corporate world can more than justify a six-figure speech. Hedge funds often invite potential clients to events featuring prominent speakers. As one hedge fund manager has explained, if just one client “decides to invest $10 million… the firm will snag a 2 percent management fee—which works out to $200,000” per year."