Football unites to tackle bowel cancer

09/04/16 . News

This April is Bowel Cancer Awareness Month and players, managers and personalities from the world of professional football will be showing their support for the fifth annual Know the Score campaign.

Know the Score will run from 9-19 April and will see clubs, charities and governing bodies, including the Professional Footballers’ Association (PFA) and League Managers Association (LMA), unite to raise awareness of bowel cancer signs and symptoms. Bowel cancer is the second biggest cause of cancer death in the UK, and research has shown early diagnosis is key to survival.

Watford striker Troy Deeney, who is supporting Know the Score, said:

“I would urge anyone who thinks they may have symptoms of bowel cancer to visit their doctor as soon as possible. You’re not wasting anyone’s time by getting it checked out. If it’s not serious, your mind will be eased, but if it is bowel cancer, research suggests that over 90% of patients will survive the disease for more than five years if diagnosed at the earliest stage.”

Thousands of ‘Star of Hope’ badges will be distributed to support the Know the Score, which is the brainchild of former Millwall, Charlton and QPR goalkeeper Nicky Johns. He lost his son, Stephen, to bowel cancer in 2009, aged just 26. The 2016 campaign also marks six years since the popular former Exeter, Yeovil and Hereford striker Adam Stansfield died from bowel cancer at the age of 31.

The Men's Health Forum supports the "Know the Score campaign". You can read more about Bowel Cancer on our website.

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.

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