Club staff, fans and media fundraisers urged to take on football’s biggest grassroots challenge in October to stop prostate cancer claiming the lives of a dad, brother, partner or best mate every 45 minutes
(Image credit: Prostate United)
Calling all football fans! This season you can play your part in saving lives and in doing so represent your football club.
Sign up to walk, run or cycle every day in October and raise money to save men’s lives. Represent your club alongside the kit men, physios and maybe even your gaffer. Why? Because prostate cancer kills one man every 45 minutes - that’s a dad, brother, partner or best mate every half a football match.
Choose your challenge
It wouldn't be a fundraiser without a challenge, right? Whether on foot or by bike, pick your distance for this October. It's your challenge, so feel free to mix up the activities. Here's a guide to get you started:
🚶🏼 Walk: 3km or 5km a day 🏃♂️ Run: 5km or 10km a day 🚲 Cycle: 10km or 25km a day
Prostate United is the biggest grassroots football fundraiser in the UK, set up in 2018 by Stephen Gilpin and Ross Burbeary, two fitness coaches working in the EFL at Rotherham United. In six years, the campaign has raised over £500,000 to help Prostate Cancer UK stop men dying from prostate cancer. The aim for this season is to double that amount and hit the magical £1 million mark.
Whether you’re part of a team or going solo, you won’t be alone. Join your club’s team on JustGiving, track your progress and connect with other fans like you giving their passion a purpose on social media and on the Prostate United community on WhatsApp. Every kilometre you complete and every pound you raise helps fund lifesaving research into better tests and treatments to save men’s lives.
“We want more clubs and fans to be involved this year. We’re really trying to bring football - from grassroots level up to the Premier League - together, all with one aim of raising as much money as we can for Prostate Cancer UK.”
Co-founder, Stephen Gilpin, who now works at Premier League Wolverhampton Wanderers lost his grandfather to prostate cancer
Since its launch, over 60 football clubs - both professional and non-league - hundreds of club staff and now fans, have walked, run or cycled every day during the month of October to save men’s lives.
“Prostate United has become much bigger than just a charity challenge, it’s become a football community.” Co-founder, Ross Burbeary, who now works at Huddersfield Town.
Doncaster Rovers headed up the national fundraising table, ahead of Newcastle United, Manchester United and Spurs, accumulating nearly £18,000. Rovers’ manager Grant McCann and his long-serving assistant, Cliff Byrne, have also completed the challenge at both Hull City and Peterborough United and they plan on going even bigger this October to retain their title.
In support of the campaign, fundraisers who reach £500 or more will receive an exclusive limited edition Prostate United football shirt. Created by renowned designer, Ed Cowburn - who through his design house, AcidFC created the Leeds United strips last season - the unique Prostate United shirt features Prostate Cancer UK’s black and blue colourway with the number 45 on the back as a reminder that prostate cancer is a disease claiming the life of one man every 45 minutes… or each half of a football match.
Get your club to the top of the fundraising league. Join Prostate United and help save men’s lives this October. Sign up HERE
Ed is a staff writer at FourFourTwo, working across the magazine and website. A German speaker, he’s been working as a football reporter in Berlin since 2015, predominantly covering the Bundesliga and Germany's national team. Favourite FFT features include an exclusive interview with Jude Bellingham following the youngster’s move to Borussia Dortmund in 2020, a history of the Berlin Derby since the fall of the Wall and a celebration of Kevin Keegan’s playing career.
