All right dudes, take a quick glance at the calendar and then get ready, set and … grow. November is No Shave month, a national campaign where men are encouraged to put down the razor to raise awareness for men’s health issues including prostate cancer, testicular cancer, staying active and in shape. This month the Arkansas Urology Foundation holds its Fourth Annual Beard Bracket, where Arkansans compete for Best Beard in the state.

“No Shave November serves as a powerful fundraising platform,” says Chris Shenep, director for the Urology Foundation. “The No Shave campaign is where we raise awareness to remind men to get checked out, but the primary goal is also to support our Foundation’s mission of addressing health disparities in the state, along with providing free men’s health screenings.”

When focusing on cancers for men, the statistics are stark. Prostate cancer is diagnosed about every two minutes in the United States and, other than skin cancer, it is the most commonly diagnosed cancer among men. Each year, about 2,000 Arkansans learn they have prostate cancer, and more than 300 will die from the disease. Testicular cancer only makes up 1% of male tumors, but it’s the No. 1 cancer among men ages 15 to 39. The cause of testicular cancer is still unknown; however, it’s highly treatable and curable when it’s caught early.

One of the fighters on the front lines of cancer and better health for men is Dr. Tim Goodson, urologist at Arkansas Urology. Goodson is well aware of the importance of the No Shave campaign and the need to draw attention to the cause. Besides the patients he sees and treats in his urology practice, Goodson is recovering from a prostate cancer diagnosis and treatment.

“Historically, guys have not paid as much attention to their health or doing screenings for cancer as women have,” Goodson, 66, says. “It’s not a coincidence that the awareness campaign coincides with the first day of the modern gun hunting season. No Shave November is a great promotion and it generates lots of enthusiasm. It raises awareness for screenings for male cancer. If you catch cancer early enough, you can often take care of it before it spreads. It’s like the self-exam for breast cancer for women.”

Goodson practices what he preaches. A few years back, he grew a beard when participating in his first No Shave November. Even as the months passed, Goodson’s No Shave beard remained.

“[Goodson] is not only an asset to Arkansas Urology and the Arkansas Urology Foundation, but to the entire state of Arkansas,” Shenep says. “He is deeply devoted to his family, involved in our community, makes a positive impact in the lives of his patients and

their families, and is a mentor to many up-and-coming younger Arkansans.”

MALTS AND JAMES BOND

Even though Goodson was born in Springfield, Mo., his family would quickly set down roots in Arkadelphia. Goodson’s father taught theology and would eventually become a vice-president of academics at Ouachita Baptist University. Goodson’s mother was an English professor across the street at Henderson State College.

Goodson jokes he was “spoiled rotten” due to being the youngest child with four older sisters.

Arkadelphia played the part of a sleepy, small college town. For Goodson, his early days were shot through with sunshine and filled with free time.

“I grew up on Cherry Street,” Goodson recalls. “It was kind of an idyllic childhood. We had two ravines to explore near my house. We used to play army and ride bikes downtown. At the Woodall Drugstore we would get malts and then go to the Royal Theatre for a matinee.”

On the screen young Goodson watched Bond, James Bond, fight the oneeyed evil mastermind Emilio Largo and the warhead hoarding SPECTRE in “Thunderball.”

There were times when Goodson felt as if he was growing up in an action movie. There might not have been any car chases but there were multiple characters to keep up with and lots of drama.

“Being a block from OBU, there were people in our house all the time,” Goodson says. “There were college kids coming in and out and my sisters would have girlfriends and boyfriends over. It was busy and it was that way a lot. Mom would find food and feed who would be there at the time.”

Goodson’s family attended First Baptist Church in Arkadelphia and his father did some fill-in preaching. What impressed Goodson the most was his father’s skill for language.

“He was an incredibly bright person,” says Goodson of his father. “He could speak several languages and taught Latin and Greek for years even after he retired from the administration of the university.”

Surely, Goodson picked up that ability for foreign languages, right?

“Oh no, you could say in this case the apple flew very far away from the tree,” says Goodson with a chuckle. “He did teach me Latin root words and that information came in handy when I was in medical school. But I couldn’t get fluent like he did.”

Though Goodson notes that his family didn’t take many grand vacations, he got a view of the world through what his mother and father knew and what they taught.

“We had the income of two college professors but it’s not like we wanted for anything,” Goodson says.

A TWIST OF FATE

During his time in high school, Goodson says he was a “solid B student.” He wasn’t an ace science student and didn’t give off any indication he would later end up as a physician, much less one who routinely completes complex cancer surgeries. There wasn’t a doctor he could see as a role model in his immediate or extended family.

“I was a band kid and I was in the choir,” Goodson says. “I liked my social studies and biology classes. I’m not the classic story of a young doctor in waiting.”

Goodson had no way of knowing that his father would end up being treated by a doctor who would later play a key part in his career.

“My dad had a bad prostate problem,” Goodson says. “He had a terrible time with his condition, which is rare and we don’t see in that many patients. I remember he was taking a trip and started bleeding. He ended up in the care of Dr. Mac Moore.”

Dr. Moore practiced urology in Arkadelphia before moving to Little Rock and being one of the founders of the Arkansas Urology practice.

“I remember [Goodson’s] father had an interesting medical case,” Moore says. “I knew his father as a dean, in a position of note at the school, before he was my patient.”

As fate would have it, years later Goodson would serve a preceptorship with Moore, where he spent six weeks shadowing the veteran doctor during his day. Sometime after that, Goodson, a medical degree in hand, would join Moore at Arkansas Urology.

“One of the things that stood out about [Goodson] was his stability,” Moore says. “We could tell he could stand up to the pressure of serious life and death issues and do the right thing. It was helpful to my partners that I could give first-hand knowledge of what he was like. He was a great fit for us.”

CLOSE TO HOME

Being the son of college professors, there was no doubt Goodson would head off to college. For his decision of where he would go after high school, Goodson didn’t have any difficult choices to make and didn’t have to travel very far.

“I got a Business Administration degree from OBU,” Goodson says.

The big reasons for his selection was the fact that it was free. Living in the same town where he went to college was not an issue.

“It was a great college degree. I enjoyed those years.”

After OBU, Goodson spent about 10 years in various business jobs including working for Merrill Lynch and Worthen Bank. Goodson says he did well enough to make a living but “felt like a square peg in a round hole.”

The decision to pursue another career meant a big change for Goodson, not the least being back in a classroom.

“When you go back to school in the way I did, you know that it’s your job,” Goodson says. “You learn how to be a student. I knew I was going to be 10 years older than most of the students [at the University of Arkansas Medical School]. I believe about 10% of the med students were non-traditional, as they called them. So I was not the only one. That is probably more common than people realize.”

THE APPEAL

Goodson says the appeal of urology comes from the work being part time seeing patients in a clinic and part time in the operating room.

“Urologists do a lot of prostate cancer surgery,” Goodson says. “We treat testicular cancer and bladder cancer. Most of those treatments are done through surgery.”

No Shave November and other awareness campaigns are moving the needle in rising numbers in early detection for cancer. Funding has increased over the years and fueled more research. Goodson says we are living in the “golden age for prostate cancer treatments.”

“In my career, we have had multiple advances in what we can do for patients,” Goodson says. “There are probably 10 treatments now that we have that we didn’t when I started. Our practice has led the charge.”

The beneficiary of one of those advance treatments is Goodson. In another twist of fate, Goodson had a diagnosis of a rare kind of prostate cancer. The only doctor in Arkansas who could perform the procedure on the kind of cancer that Goodson had? Goodson.

“I have done really well and have been blessed with the treatment I received,” Goodson says. “I had to go to the fellow who taught the procedure to me. He was living in Sarasota, Fla.”

Coming out on the other side of a cancer scare, Goodson is still able to do what he wants to do. What he wants to do whenever possible is to play pickleball.

“I’ve taken to pickleball,” Goodson says. “It’s an easy sport to pick up. Once you pick it up, you can get better at it. I played golf up until I was 40 years old. Then I quit because I never got better. My wife kind of rolls her eyes when I say I am going to play pickleball. It’s all right, I am fortunate I am here to play any sport at all.”