Forum's Alan White's pioneering work recognised

28/11/22 . News

Forum patron Professor Alan White has had his long and impressive service to men’s health recognised.

Alan, who is Emeritus Professor of Men’s Health at Leeds Beckett University, won a National Men and Boys Awards from the Men and Boys Coalition for his pioneering work championing the field of men's health.

At a ceremony at Stoller Hall in Manchester on Friday 25 November, Alan’s work was recognised alongside the BBC1 documentary series, Freddie Flintoff’s Field of Dreams; Billy McGranaghan, Founder of Dads House, a charity supporting single fathers facing the cost of living crisis in London; The Lighthouse Club construction industry charity, which provides emotional and financial support for men in the construction industry who have fallen on hard times; and, Erroll McKellar MBE, Founder of The Errol McKellar Foundation, for his campaign to raise men’s awareness of prostate cancer particularly among Black men who are at highest risk.

The National Men and Boys Awards, founded in 2020 by the Men and Boys Coalition charity, recognise individuals and organisations who have made an outstanding contribution to promoting care, compassion and social change for men and boys in the UK.

Dan Bell, CEO of the Men and Boys Coalition, said: ‘There is an incredible network of charities, practitioners and academics in the UK who are doing crucial, unsung work on the ground to support men and boys and raise awareness of the many issues they face - often on a shoestring.

‘The Men and Boys Coalition was founded to champion the men and boys sector in the UK -- and what better way to do that than to shout about this brilliant work with our National Men and Boys Awards.

‘I am absolutely delighted to announce our award winners, whose work is quite literally re-shaping the understanding of, and provision for, issues of disadvantage that affect men and boys in the UK.’

The Men’s Health Forum need your support

It’s tough for men to ask for help but if you don’t ask when you need it, things generally only get worse. So we’re asking.

In the UK, one man in five dies before the age of 65. If we had health policies and services that better reflected the needs of the whole population, it might not be like that. But it is. Policies and services and indeed men have been like this for a long time and they don’t change overnight just because we want them to.

It’s true that the UK’s men don’t have it bad compared to some other groups. We’re not asking you to ‘feel sorry’ for men or put them first. We’re talking here about something more complicated, something that falls outside the traditional charity fund-raising model of ‘doing something for those less fortunate than ourselves’. That model raises money but it seldom changes much. We’re talking about changing the way we look at the world. There is nothing inevitable about premature male death. Services accessible to all, a population better informed. These would benefit everyone - rich and poor, young and old, male and female - and that’s what we’re campaigning for.

We’re not asking you to look at images of pity, we’re just asking you to look around at the society you live in, at the men you know and at the families with sons, fathers and grandads missing.

Here’s our fund-raising page - please chip in if you can.

Registered with the Fundraising Regulator