Adam (28) found a lump in his testicle thanks to the #boobsandballs campaign

• Prevention discovered a serious illness. What was that about? 
  I got diagnosed with testicular cancer – a rather complicated tumour. I felt the warning signs for some time and the #boobsandballs initiative made me and my girlfriend self-examine ourselves. I felt a lump in my left testicle, and I decided to see a doctor. 
   

• How was the diagnosis? 
  I was in shock. There’s a funny story to it, actually. Initially, I had more considerable trouble with a blood clot in the groin, so I went to get the examination with the feeling that the testicle might be alright. I used to work at a law firm, and when I left for the examination, I told the secretary that they were just going for the groin, not the sack. And she said, “Hope they don’t cut it off!” And I called her two hours later that they will be cutting it off eventually.
   

• What’s Preventivka’s contribution? 
  Looking at people around me, they often see prevention as an urgency. This app is set to talk about topics in a fun way. Also, it’s an app, so it’s within easy reach. It can send us reminders every day – about the examination last month that I don’t have to think about again, or that I’m healthy and don’t need to stress about something. Especially stress makes people not go get a preventive check-up. Users can show the app data to their friends and compare it. I like that it’s done in a fun way. 
   

• Do you think prevention can save lives? 
  For sure!

Prevention is Pavlína's (38) lifestyle

• What does prevention mean to you?
  Prevention is being conscious of yourself and preventing the future. Wayne Gretzky says, “skate to where the puck is going”. And that’s what prevention means to me. Just because my body works excellently now doesn’t mean it will be the same in 10, 15 or 20 years, and it’s something to invest in.
   

• Have you been this dutiful since childhood? 
  I used to be ill all the time as a child, so my consciousness regarding health and its fragility was always internalized. I’m an allergic person, I have asthma, you know – big city Prague kid. (laughs) So, the more you’re conscious of your health and realize where it can and can’t let you go – the more, I think, you practise prevention – to go for that field trip with classmates even though you’re asthmatic, or to do physically challenging sports even though you’re an allergic person.
   

• Do you think prevention can save lives? 
  Prevention will always save lives. The same goes for the question of whether I’m a feminist. Of course, I am. Let’s ask how we can reach more people with prevention, be more inclusive on such topics, and speak about it in broader terminology – not as we do about dentist appointments twice a year.

  Could Preventivka help?
  Apps are great because they’re on your phone. Most of us unlock it 100× a day, and suddenly, something is peering at us, making it possible to get a preventive health check-up with the push of a button. Isn’t it great? 

Luckily, Roman (43) defeated kidney cancer

• What does prevention mean to you?
  I got to my state not so much by prevention as by starting to look for why I feel the way I do. And also mainly because my wife stood by me, who took care of me when I was unable to do anything. He has a bulldog personality and that's why I'm still here today.
   

• What was the diagnosis?
  Renal cell (Grawitz) carcinoma, a malignant kidney tumour, was relatively aggressive and grew fast. And some metastasis in the lungs, and the risk they might be in the spine because there were some tumour deposits as well.
   

• How did this experience change your perception of prevention and health?
  The paradox is I was significantly engaged in health before. I went to get preventive check-ups. I don’t smoke, am an abstainer, ate healthily and exercised regularly, so nothing that would indicate me being at risk.
   

• What would you tell people who don’t get preventive check-ups?
  I would tell them that even when people look healthy and do everything they should, it doesn’t mean they’re healthy. That it’s worth to get “unnecessarily” examined than not and regret it later.

Lucie (37) found her cervical cancer early

• Did you see some warning signs of something happening in your body?
  I did experience warning signs and it made me run to the doctor. It all happened so fast. The problems started in the summer and I was diagnosed in September, so I didn’t underestimate the situation.
   

• What would you tell people who don’t get preventive check-ups?
  To go, just go! Many people are afraid of what the doctor might tell them. That it’s gonna be something terrible, so they decide not to go. Many cases around me were like this. I find it “short-sighted”. I can’t be afraid of something like this, so it progresses into something crazy, can I? I’d rather deal with it immediately. It’s uncomfortable, and the treatment is also sometimes painful and long, but it’s better to deal with it sooner than later and not let it reach a stage where it would be too late. Those people should go and not be afraid of what the doctor might tell them because it can be sorted out in most cases. The tumour might have grown, burst, or metastasized if I hadn’t sorted it out. 
   

• Do you think Preventivka can help with prevention?
  Absolutely. Besides those afraid of getting check-ups, many people forget about them. I have reminders everywhere – make an appointment for a gynaecologist, make an appointment for a dermatologist – because I wouldn’t remember. So I set a reminder a month ahead to make the appointments. So having an app that can help with this is undoubtedly a great thing.

Jana (42) doesn't know what a cavity is

• What do preventive check-ups bring you?
  I can boast about not having a single cavity in my teeth, thanks to preventive check-ups. Never have. I don’t know what a dental drill is. I just know it from the stories of others. (laughs) Prevention brings me peace. When something hurts, or I’m not sure about something, well then, thanks to a check-up, I find out it was banality or nothing serious. It brings me inner peace. I did everything I could.
   

• Can prevention save lives?
  I’m convinced prevention can, in fact, save lives. Lives of all of us. It’s actually the first step to living a longer and high-quality life. It’s essential, and I wouldn’t even discuss it. You don’t think about putting something on in the morning, and you just go and dress up. The same goes for prevention.
   

• Could Preventivka contribute to paying more attention to prevention? 
  The app will definitely help. I thought I knew everything about when, where or how often I should go get a check-up. Thanks to Loono, I know I failed to attend to some of them. An app is definitely a tool to make it clearer. When I attended one rather demanding examination, I didn’t know what to do, who to notify or where to go. Loono describes it well. You’ll find instructions in a few sentences in the app, and that’s great.

František (52) got diagnosed with chronic leukaemia early

• When did you start engaging in prevention? 
  It all started 6 months into 2021 when I was in Bulovka hospital with acute cholecystitis (gallbladder attack). During the examination, Katka Šedová (Vacková) diagnosed me with chronic leukaemia.
   

• So you changed your attitude after the experience? 
  I started thinking about what and how to do things. I got a screening to know how I’m doing nutrition-wise, what my body needs, and where the deficits are. Step by step, I’m getting a rehabilitation programme which should also help the blood.
   

• What would you tell people who don’t get preventive check-ups?
  I’d like to address them very much. I realized our bodies are diaries that we write since birth. And everything is written down in this diary – every party, every joint smoked, sleepless night, injury, every argument, etc. It’s simply stored somewhere in the body, in the diary. And it’s a matter of time before someone starts reading the diary. And that someone could be the insidious illness which has been collecting all the material so it could develop. And later, it will make us pay.

Anna (29) experienced stroke and panic attacks

• What does prevention mean to you? 
  I’m not sure many of us would need a radical moment in our lives to do something about it. I can’t name a person who cared for themselves without having something come before it. Prevention is bound to something coming before it, for me.
   

• How do you take care of yourself?
  I’m healthy, so I don’t go to the doctor besides preventive check-ups. I just went to see a cardiologist whom I visit every 5 years. Not long ago, I was at the dentist's. So yes, I like taking care of myself. Speaking of dentists, I wasn’t quite good lately. I had a cavity, and it surprised me. (laughs)
   

• Are those cardiologist appointments preventive because of a suffered illness?
  I had a stroke at school when I was 13. We were playing around with girls, I tilted my head, and the blood clot rushed to my brain. The right side of my body was paralyzing, and I started talking nonsense. I thought I was drunk. The clot hit the central speech and of movement and the brain started to function differently within such event. I felt like I was drunk. I didn't realize what was happening at all.
   

• Were there any more complications?
  I started having panic attacks when I was 19, before graduation. After 7 years, post-traumatic syndrome (PTSD) manifested, and I later found out I was processing the stroke for that long.
   

• What would you tell people who don’t get preventive check-ups and do not care for themselves as you do? 
  I’d recommend taking care of themselves. Not just in medical terms. It goes hand in hand with getting to know who you really are. You have to love yourselves. It will result in going for the check-up, not because of fear but because you’re doing it for yourself, taking care.