Wow! Over £90,000 raised so far

Lincolnshire Co-op is fundraising for Prostate Cancer UK through its Community Champions scheme – and thanks to members and colleagues more than £90,000 has been raised so far!

Prostate cancer kills one man every 45 minutes and one in eight men in the UK will be diagnosed with it.

However men’s health charity Prostate Cancer UK is leading the fight against the disease, from funding vital research to ensuring advice from specialist nurses is just a phone call away.

A donation is being made to Prostate Cancer UK each time a Lincolnshire Co-op member shops using their dividend card.

Proceeds from carrier bags also go into the pot, and there’s more:

• More than £1,900 has been raised through three quiz nights at Lincoln City, Boston United and Scunthorpe United football club grounds in March and April. There were raffle prizes to win plus items to bid on, and a few special guests came along!
• Colleagues in store have been getting involved in their own fundraising including:
  - Old Leake Food Store store which raffled an Easter hamper and a Love Local hamper.
  - Monks Road Food Store’s Community Liaison Representative Terri Pinnington who ran the London Marathon for Prostate Cancer UK and The Rooprai Spinal Trust.
  - An Alice in Wonderland Easter fun day at Nunsthorpe Food Store.
  - Old Leake Food Store, near Boston, where the team have set themselves a £2,000 target. Shoppers can currently guess the name of the bear for £1 a go and the team plan to do a non-stop exercise bike challenge in May.

• Generous holidaymakers are donating £1 when booking a holiday at one of the Society’s 14 travel branches.

• Lincolnshire Co-op outlets are selling official Prostate Cancer UK pin badges until the fundraising comes to an end in June – don’t forget to pick up yours!

"There is help out there" 

Wilf Baker (above) is chairman of Procas, a support group for men affected by prostate cancer and their families in Lincolnshire and the Humber. It has 21 members currently and meets once a month in Scunthorpe.

He said the support for Prostate Cancer UK has been wonderful so far, because his group relies on the charity for advice, signposting, access to information leaflets and more.

“If I want to know anything, I ring Prostate Cancer UK,” he added.

“If someone comes to the group, or just wants to pick the phone up and talk, hopefully I can talk to them and give them a little bit of hope and point them in the right direction to go. There is help out there."

Wilf said he noticed no symptoms before he was diagnosed with the disease in 2014.

“I went in because I’d got a bladder problem, and while they were examining me they said, ‘do you know you’ve got a swollen prostate?" he said.

Medical staff kept an eye on it with regular PSA tests, which check for a protein produced by normal cells in the prostate and also by prostate cancer cells. A biopsy then showed Wilf's prostate had signs of cancer. 

“My option I decided was going to be hormone treatment and then radiotherapy. When I got told in July and knew I would be having the treatment towards the end of the year, I thought ‘this is my last Christmas, I have three grandchildren'.

“That was in 2014, and we’re now in 2018. I know it’s only May but I’m looking forward to Christmas this year!"

Lincolnshire Co-op will continue fundraising for Prostate Cancer UK through the Community Champions scheme until June.

Anyone with concerns about prostate cancer may contact Prostate Cancer UK's Specialist Nurses in confidence on 0800 074 8383 or online via the charity's Live Chat instant messaging service.

The Specialist Nurse phone service is free to landlines and open from 9am to 6pm Monday to Friday with late opening until 8pm on Wednesdays.

Find out about Procas, a local support group for those affected by prostate cancer in Lincolnshire and Humber, here.