Success Stories

Find out what real MOCHA participants are saying about the program.

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  A Voice in the Wilderness: Brother Al

  “MOCHA helped me to withstand the storm when it came.”

  Before joining MOCHA, Brother Al already considered himself to be proactive about health. He liked to play tennis and he went to the doctor regularly. Although he’d used drugs when he was younger, he’d been drug-free for 25 years. “I was in good shape,” he says, “and I wanted to know how to sustain that.”

  A friend thought Brother Al might be interested in joining MOCHA.

  “It was a great opportunity to learn how to live healthier as an African American man,” he says.

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  Building Relationships: Archie Emmanuel Jr.

  “Men have to understand that we’re not Superman. We can’t do it all by ourselves.”

  When Archie Emmanuel Jr. got engaged to his future wife, she asked him to get a checkup. Until then, he hadn’t been going to the doctor regularly. After the appointment, Emmanuel found out he had prostate cancer.

  His fiancé wasn’t afraid. “She told me she had my back,” he remembers. It was the beginning of what would be a truly supportive partnership through his journey to better health.

  After his treatment, Emmanuel joined a prostate cancer survivor’s group. “The doctor there said there was a group of guys I should tell my story to,” he says.

  That group of guys was MOCHA.

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  In It for the Long Haul: Lamont Scott

  “MOCHA has helped me make so many positive changes. I tell other men they can have the same outcome.”

  In 2010, Lamont Scott was recovering from his first surgery for cancer and looking for a way to get back on his feet. His doctor told him about MOCHA.

  Scott says that MOCHA seemed like a good opportunity because it included a free membership at the Y, which meant an opportunity to take physical activity classes that could improve his strength and coordination.

  “I wanted to get my strength and weight back and find out what I could and couldn’t do,” he says. It turned out that MOCHA helped him meet these goals — and much more.

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