Diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2000, Thomas A. Farrington describes himself as being completely uninformed about every aspect of the disease, especially his extremely high risk level as an African American, and having lost his father and both grandfathers to prostate cancer.
In 2001 he released “Battling The Killer Within” Based upon his experiences and those of men he encountered in treatment with him. The book provided an insightful look at the impact that the prostate care system has on Black men contributing to the high prostate cancer death rate disparity they experience.
In 2003, Mr. Farrington founded the Prostate Health Education Network (PHEN), a Boston, MA based non-profit organization to focus on the urgent and unmet prostate education and awareness needs of Black men. Under his leadership PHEN is now recognized as one of the nation’s leading prostate cancer patient education and advocacy organization, and the leading such organization with a focus on Black men.
In 1969, Farrington founded Input Output Computer Services where he served as president and chairman. This company was a recognized pioneer in the evolution of IT professional services, and the first technology company listed on the Black Enterprise top 100 companies.
Thomas Farrington received his B.S. degree from North Carolina A&T State University in electrical engineering (he served on the board of trustees for his alma mater) and attended the Northeastern University Graduate School of Engineering. He is married to Juarez Farrington and they are the parents of three adult children and two grandchildren.
Meet The BlackDoctor.org 2015 “Champions of Change” was originally published on blackdoctor.org
