Prostate Cancer

Decision made - it is to be The Prostate Cancer Charity.

Thank you all of those who commented and emailed me after my earlier posting about choosing which charity to support. It has helped me decide.

RNLI
As an official sponsor of the Bath Half Marathon this would have been the easy choice with minimum work on my part. But:-

• RNLI will get the lion’s share of sponsorship of the run - perversely perhaps I want to support a charity that is not already involved
• The money is going to support Lifeguards - which to me is not the core activity of RNLI - rather than the boat rescue services
• I got no response to my email enquiry.

VSO
A small amount of money here might have a bigger impact than a larger sum to another charity. But:-

• Potential contributors have suggested that charity should begin at home - reducing my potential pot
• The volunteer that I thought I was sponsoring in Malawi appears to have changed - and I am unable to update you on what is happening
• There is no obvious link in time or location between this charity and the Bath Half Marathon.

The Prostate Cancer Charity
There are two links here - one personal and one timely:-

• My brother was diagnosed and treated successfully for prostate cancer
• March 2011 is Prostate Cancer Awareness Month.

Prostate cancer is the most common cancer for men. There is a genetic component but most men will get it eventually. There is an urgent need to develop a reliable method of screening. More research is required to find out why some prostate cancers are more aggressive than others and how this can be detected so that treatment can be focused on those most in need of it. Unfortunately available treatments can have unpleasant side effects.

How 2 Help
Today I have set up a “Just Giving” page for you to visit - and make a donation if you wish. You can use credit or debit cars or PayPal.

A couple of things I should point out:-

• If you make a donation now it is taken immediately and you cannot get it back if I don’t run the Half Marathon - you may prefer to wait until I have completed the run
• Just Giving charge 5% of the donation - which they take out of the gift aid - for administration and running their website. The card providers and PayPal also take a small cut.

Details of these costs are at Just Giving - what-it-costs

Give Generously

“Give all thou canst; high Heaven rejects the lore
Of nicely-calculated less or more.” - Wordsworth

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