TORONTO – Mark McIntyre is used to receiving horrified looks when he
greets people at the door. But he hopes that’ll change soon.
McIntyre
has become pretty comfortable engaging with others while almost naked
as he enters the final stretch of a 25-day web stunt called “The Guy at
Home in His Underwear.”
He’s not an exhibitionist and doesn’t
particularly enjoy the sensation of being constantly watched – while
shirtless and pantsless – but the cancer survivor swallowed his pride
for a good cause.
With a sponsorship from the underwear company
Stanfield’s, McIntyre has raised $50,000 for the Canadian Cancer
Society and hopes guyathome.com has spread some awareness about
testicular cancer, which he was diagnosed with a few years ago.
Although
McIntyre, 41, has a theatre background, he said on Friday morning – Day
24 of the campaign – that it wasn’t easy putting most of himself out
there for all the Internet to see.
“There’s nothing that ever
prepares you for this,” he said during a telephone interview, which
like everything else he does, was broadcast live.
“You sort of
get used to it a little bit, I guess, but at the same time I think it’s
really surreal and for the next two weeks I’m probably going to be
looking over my shoulder thinking that people are watching me.”
Most
of the time, McIntyre’s sequestered life was mundane, and he spent
large chunks of the day sitting at a computer chatting with viewers to
pass the time. To spice things up, some activities were scheduled for
him, including a psychic reading, a blind date, lessons in yoga, belly
dancing, volleyball, playing the didgerydoo, and a birthday party.
To
raise extra money he also took part in a few challenges, including
frying up bacon, having his chest waxed and getting a tattoo.
He
admitted to doing a bit of clock watching over the past few days and
was itching to get outside and go for a long, long walk. After putting
some pants on, of course.
“I’m a total walker,” he said, “I feel
like a little bit of a caged animal in here sometimes because I walk
everywhere … and without that it’s been really bizarre for me. So
yeah, I’ll probably go for a nine-hour walk.”
The end of
McIntyre’s time in front of the cameras will come Saturday afternoon
sometime around 4 p.m. ET, after accepting the $50,000 cheque and
saying his goodbyes. He’s glad he had the chance to share the story of
his cancer diagnosis with countless people around the world – no
viewership stats were available for the website but his Facebook page
had more than 51,000 “Likes” as of Friday afternoon – and hopes some of
his followers are now aware of how testicular cancer strikes young men.
According
to the Canadian Cancer Society, about 900 Canadian men are diagnosed
with testicular cancer every year. While most are between 15 to 29 when
they discover they have the disease, McIntyre, who works at a Toronto
comedy club, got the cancer later, at 38.
“No matter what the statistics tell you, you should always be checking,” he said.
