Three of the Iron’s medical team completed Movember last month as part of a nationwide scheme to raise awareness of men’s health issues.
Movember is an annual event involving the growing of moustaches during the month of November to raise awareness of prostate cancer, testicular cancer, and men's suicide with the trio avoiding a shave as a department.
Head of Medical Services Michael McBride suggested taking part in September, with Assistant First Team Physiotherapist Ben Palmer and Sports Massage Therapist Kev Hornsby completing the line-up for the eleventh month of the year, with the chosen charity being Prostate Cancer UK.
Unbeknown to Kev, he was to be diagnosed with the disease just weeks later, making the reason to take part even more significant.
“It was Michael who suggested we took part this year,” Kev explained.
“At the time, we all had a laugh and a joke about growing moustaches, particularly myself, who hasn’t grown one since I was about 19. I knew I’d look like a right so-and-so.
“When I got the news a few weeks later, it made taking part in this more poignant. The lads have been brilliant with me since. Between the players and staff, we’ve raised quite a bit of money for Prostate Cancer UK.
“In football, the players get fined for daft little things and it goes in a kitty, and in the last few weeks that money has gone into the pot, which is nice. We’ve had players donate who haven’t even been fined and others paying more than they’ve been fined, so it’s been great to have their support.”
Prostate cancer is very common in men and statistically, if you look at it in terms of a football club, around four in our current playing squad will be affected directly by the disease at some point in their lives.
A reminder of the staggering statistics surround prostate cancer…
-> In the UK, a man dies every 45 minutes from prostate cancer
-> Prostate cancer is the most common cancer in men in the UK
-> In the UK, around one in eight men will get the disease at some point in their lives
-> Men aged 50 or over, men with a family history of prostate cancer and black men are more at risk of getting prostate cancer.
-> Over 47,000 men are diagnosed with prostate cancer every year – that's 129 men every day.
Donate to the cause…
You can donate to the cause directly by visiting the Prostate Cancer UK website or by visiting the dedicated Just Giving page set up by our medical team.