New Head of Programmes joins our team

17/10/14 . News

The Men's Health Forum has added a Head of Programmes to its staff team. 

Tracy Herd joined the organisation today and will drive our work through programme development, programme leadership and delivery. Initially, her particular focus will be on expanding the Men's Health Forum's innovative Man MOT service and driving forward our research programmes on obesity.

Tracy joins us from the Royal Borough of Greenwich where she was Healthier Communities Programme Manager, with a wide remit including developing and delivering their extensive men's health programme. She also led on the Well London project for the borough taking an asset based and community development approach to improving the health and wellbeing of the most deprived communities in Greenwich.  Previously Tracy also established the Greenwich Men’s Health Forum, engaging with partner organisations across the borough to raise the profile of the need to address local poor health outcomes for men.

Martin Tod, Chief Executive of the Men's Health Forum said 'I am delighted that Tracy's joining us. We have some important projects that will make a difference to men's lives and her experience will help us deliver them even more effectively.'

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