Luton Town helps to save lives with prostate cancer campaign

More than 200 men over the age of 40 attended a PSA testing event at the club on Sunday.

An average of 5.14% of men in the population test positive for raised PSA levels, which can be an indication of prostate cancer, so organisers expect around 11 men tested on Sunday may have to go for further tests. Others may have borderline figures and will be advised to be tested in the future.

Luton Town’s assistant manager Mick Harford, who has been treated for prostate cancer, was on hand to help with the campaign, organised by the Beds Prostate Cancer Support Group, which paid half of the cost of the tests.

In 2018 a total of 49,029 men in England were diagnosed with PCa, more than women diagnosed with breast cancer. In 2017 12,301 men died of the disease, which is approximately one every 45 minutes.

One in 8 men will get PCa in their lifetime and for black men it is 1 in 4. It occurs mostly in men over the age of 40.

The Beds Prostate Cancer Support Group (BPCSG) is promoting a PCa home test kit which can be ordered from BPCSG’s web site www.bpcsg.org.uk. BPCSG pay half the cost of this kit for those men who live in Bedfordshire. Enter the code BEDS50 in the relevant box when registering for the kit to get the 50% discount. The kit is very easy to use as it only requires a simple finger-prick via a small spring-loaded device.