Welcome to our Monthly Briefing for September. This briefing is for you as a group leader/organiser of one of our network of Peer Support Groups. We hope you find the content useful. The Hot Topics section below contains information that your members will find useful; if you are able, please share it with them.
Last months Support Group Leaders included a session from Andrew Moffatt, our Fundraising Manager. Andrew has written some tips and ideas for fundraising , and these along with some of your own success in fundraising can be found on the resource section of the Members Portal here
Earlier this month, we went to an event at Westminster as party of the Boys need Bins campaign. The event was organised by Prostate Cancer UK, and launched the report LIFTING THE LID ON MALE INCONTINENCE . The report was drawn together from work we have done over the past year. It features the experiences of several of our Group Leaders including Ken Mastris and Martin Wells. Both Martin and Ken were in attendance at the events and spoke to MPs and other stakeholders, and you can see photos from the event above. Thank you to those of you who contributed through the survey, and by adding your voices to this important campaign.
It was a great event with several MPs in attendance, Transport for Wales , and representatives from The Welsh Senedd . The event was supported by Stuart Andrew MP for Pudsey, Horsforth & Aireborough, who is also the Minister for Sport, Civic Society and Minister for Inequalities.
I caught up with Stuart Andrews at the event , and told him where I first discovered the inequity of provision for men . I told him of the man I met at the Metro Walnut group picnic in July 2022 and how his story made me start asking more men about their incontinence experiences . The more we heard, the more we realised the glaring inequalities, and how this impacted on men. This led to a chance conversation with Lubna at PCUK and got us thinking about a campaign which led Lubna to discover the APPG on Bladder and Bowel Continence Care who had previously had a similar campaign. Working alongside PCUK and other stakeholders is a great example of the benefits of partnership work for a small charity like ours.
Amplifying the voices and experiences around the consequences of prostate cancer is essential if we are to raise awareness of the value of the great support that can be offered through our network of support groups. We shall be doing more of this over the next few months, as we embark on an exciting new project. Molly, our Comms Manager will be coming to the October Support Group Leaders meeting to explain what this project hopes to achieve and how we can all get involved.
We are super proud to have be part of this campaign and know we can make a difference if we all stick at it and work together.
This month I celebrate my third anniversary at Tackle . It has been an exciting , productive and humbling three years. Being the sole full time employee has not been without its challenges, yet, together working alongside the Trustees, and hardworking volunteers, I feel we have made huge progress in reaching more people diagnosed with and impacted by Prostate Cancer.
Never happy to sit back , and recognising that progress is a constant journey there is still much more to do. As we come to the end of the Lottery funding , it would be great to hear from you about the changes this funding has bought to our federation, and what you would like to see us do next. Drop us a line here
https://tackleprostate.org/hot-topics-in-the-news/
https://www.facebook.com/groups/626528149370944
Ordering Information and resources from Prostate Cancer UK .
We have heard several frustrations from Group Leaders about ordering resources from Prostate Cancer UK. We are working with them to ensure that you are able to order any information and resources for your meetings and community events. There are several ways to order resources, the easiest and quickest way is to register as an event organiser and use the online shop. We have produced a handy sheet and you can find it on our members portal by clicking here.
Additionally, many Group Leaders used to receive regular copies of the Insights magazine from Prostate Cancer UK. Insights is their free, twice-yearly magazine full of the latest news from the labs, in-depth articles on hot topics, health tips and personal stories. It is delivered every summer and winter. Email [email protected], or ask your members to sign up via the online form here
Many groups run regular Community PSA Blood testing events. Using local phlebotomists along with the excellent booking services from Graham Fulford Trust, groups are able to ensure that participants receive pre-test information and a secure and safe way to receive their results.
An event run by the Isle of Wight Prostate Cancer Support Group led to this feedback from a man who attended one of their events.
‘ I attended your event at Cowes in May for a PSA test, this was after continually asking my GP for a test and being continually fobbed off and told the test was not reliable enough etc, etc,. My result was high and I have since been having more tests, scans etc, today I have had it confirmed that I have prostate cancer and it looks like it has been caught early enough to deal with it, I have yet to have the surgery to have it removed so we are not out he woods yet however I would like to thank you for arranging these events, this one may just have saved my life.’
Do let us know about any awareness activity your group does.
