Iceland Foods Charitable Foundation and Prostate Cancer UK take awareness campaign on the road

Iceland Foods Charitable Foundation (IFCF) has unveiled a newly branded HGV in partnership with Prostate Cancer UK, taking awareness messaging directly into communities across the UK.

While the HGV will travel nationwide, it will spend much of its time in the West Midlands. Home to the largest Black community outside London, the region is a key focus for Prostate Cancer UK’s awareness work, as 1 in 4 Black men will get prostate cancer. By taking the campaign directly into communities across Birmingham, Wolverhampton, Smethwick, Wednesbury and beyond, Iceland Foods Charitable Foundation and Prostate Cancer UK aim to encourage conversations and help more men understand their risk, because the earlier you find prostate cancer, the easier it is to treat.

The campaign supports Prostate Cancer UK’s efforts to improve early diagnosis and tackle inequalities in prostate cancer outcomes, with recent data published by the charity highlighting a stark “postcode lottery” of care, showing severe regional disparities in how prostate cancer is diagnosed and treated across the UK. In the West Midlands alone over 4,500 men are diagnosed with prostate cancer every year, and just over a quarter (26 percent) of those men are diagnosed too late for a cure. Prostate Cancer UK is committed to raising awareness here and across the nation, to ensure men know their risk and what they can choose to do about it.

Prostate cancer is the most common cancer in the UK without a mass screening programme, and it is often symptomless at its earlier stages when it can be cured. Right now, men have a responsibility to know if they are at higher risk- which is any man over 50, or Black men and men with a family history over 45- and to start a conversation with their GP about a simple blood test to check for signs of prostate cancer.

James Steven, Head of Partnerships at Prostate Cancer UK said: “A huge thank you to IFCF for helping to keep men on the road with their lorry raising lifesaving awareness. One in eight men will get prostate cancer, and your risk doubles if you are Black. But the good news is it’s curable if found early, so we need men to know their risk and speak to their GP if they are at higher risk.

With the Midlands one of the areas of the UK where men are most likely to be diagnosed too late for a cure, this lorry has been hitting the road and doing vital work to get more men thinking about the UK’s most common cancer and taking 30 seconds to check their risk online with Prostate Cancer UK.”

Tarsem Dhaliwal OBE, Group Chief Executive of Iceland Foods, Trustee of Iceland Foods Charitable Foundation and PCUK ambassador, said: “This lorry was a wonderful idea to raise lifesaving prostate cancer awareness in an area that desperately needs it, and we were glad to make it happen.

Iceland Foods Charitable Foundation is proud to have worked alongside Prostate Cancer UK for two decades, funding groundbreaking research and raising awareness of the most common cancer in the UK to help more men find it earlier, and to save more lives.”

Evidence is indisputable that the later a man finds out about his prostate cancer, the harder it is to manage it, and this partnership aims to educate men about their prostate cancer risk in areas where they are most often diagnosed late.

Since the inception of the partnership in 2008, IFCF has donated over £1.5 million to Prostate Cancer UK to help to diagnose prostate cancer, develop the world’s first precision medicine for prostate cancer, and transform outcomes for men across the UK.

Find out more about the partnership between Iceland Foods Charitable Foundation and Prostate Cancer UK here: Prostate Cancer UK | Iceland Foods Charitable Foundation