All the latest news from the Prostate Project, including updates on the 'Man Van'. research and of course, fundraising.
giving men a better chance of beating prostate cancer
Newsletter HELLO ALL,
WINTER 2022
Those of you that receive our regular bulletins via email will know what a momentous year it has been for the Prostate Project, for supporters that prefer their updates to arrive by post (and there are lots of you), please read on…
So, where to begin?
I must start with the astonishing news that we have now raised enough money to place an order for the ‘Man Van’, our mobile PSA blood testing clinic. Since launching the appeal in January, we have been overwhelmed by the generosity of our friends, and while there is still a long way to go as far as kitting the vehicle out, we are well on the road! Then there is the ground breaking research that you are helping to fund. This work is being recognised around the world, placing Guildford, the Stokes Centre, Royal Surrey Hospital and the University of Surrey firmly on the global map for excellence and innovation. There are so many thankyou’s that I would probably need an entire newsletter to include them all, I have tried to cover as many as possible and I hope you enjoy hearing about the businesses and individuals that have ‘gone the extra mile’ on behalf of the Prostate Project in 2022.
The fact that we have done all of this in such hard times is testament to all of you and our mission to defeat prostate cancer and give men healthier lives.
I hope that you enjoy reading our latest newsletter, and that you find the articles interesting and informative. As always, if you have any comments or suggestions, please email us, we love hearing from you!
Have a wonderful Christmas and a happy, healthy and (I hope) prosperous 2023!!!
Alf Turner Chairman
The Prostate Project, Stokes Centre for Urology, Royal Surrey County Hospital, Egerton Road, Guildford GU2 7XX Email: info@prostate-project.org.uk Website: www.prostate-project.org.uk Tel: 01483 406870 Registered Charity No. 1078523
The ‘Man Van’ In under ten months, we have raised enough money to place an order with the specialist suppliers and as you will see from the images, we are now firmly involved in the process of kitting out the van with all the clinical, administrative and practical equipment required for a first class resource ready to hand over to the NHS. For those of you like me that are into figures, we have raised over £150,000 of our £200,000 target, which really is some going! Once on the road, the ‘Man Van’ will travel across the region, not only providing a mobile centre for PSA blood testing, but also acting as a communications depository for information about prostate cancer. We will be visiting shopping centres, musical events and festivals, classical concerts, sporting occasions, clubs and workplaces, out of hours and at weekends. We will be reaching communities and individuals at risk or with reduced access to clinical care, and helping redress the situation which saw thousands of men go untested due to Covid and lockdowns.
Peugeot Boxer van – the logos are for illustrative purposes only
We will be saving and prolonging lives.
The van is a 3.5 tonne Peugeot Boxer, meaning that we will not have the restrictions associated with Heavy Goods Vehicles. Not only are we purchasing and kitting out the van, we are also contributing to the running costs for the first 12 months of operation, when of course it will be operated and managed by the NHS. Corporate sponsors will be sought to add subtle branding to the exterior of the van, alongside NHS and SSCA logos, and you can be assured that we will soon have a vehicle that we can all be very proud of. We are grateful to everyone that has worked so hard to get the van on the road, there is plenty more still to be done but we are delighted with our amazing progress.
Music Really Does Have Charms On October 25th, the Stokes Centre reception area was filled with the gentle sounds of the Kora, a West African stringed instrument, expertly played by Rudy Green (pictured with Professor Stephen Langley, Helen Blocke and Penelope Makrykosta). The recital was warmly received and over the next few months we will be hosting live virtuoso music performances on the harp, piano and other instruments, the programme is funded by the Music in Hospitals & Care Charity, and we are grateful for their support.
If you would prefer to receive an electronic version of this, and other Prostate Project newsletters via email, please let us know by sending a message to us at info@prostate-project.org.uk
www.prostate-project.org.uk
Thank You...and you and you We are of course immensely grateful for every single contribution or effort, no matter the size, in fact it is sometimes the ‘small, personal’ gestures that mean so much, a handwritten note or the anonymous contribution with a simple message of thanks. Please be assured that every member of the research and treatment teams is aware of the heartfelt nature of these words.
The Drift Golf Club in Horsley have been unstinting in their generosity and as we come to the end of our fundraising year, I can confirm that they have raised over £7,000 for us. We have a genuine champion in the form of Seniors Club Captain Patrick Crossan and we are grateful to General Manager Tom Parrish and his entire team for their wonderful hospitality and kind support. Our great friends at Univar held their annual golf day earlier in the year. Attended by our founder, Colin Stokes, myself and Dr Guy Simpson the event raised over £20,000, money that will be used to support our PhD student Chris Smith in his work into detecting and treating Neuroendocrine Prostate Cancer, a form of advanced prostate cancer. Collecting a cheque was never more fun than on my recent visit to Rushmore Male Voice choir, they laugh as much as they sing, and trust me, they sing beautifully…thanks lads, it was a great evening. Big thanks to our patron Les Spaine for letting us promote awareness of prostate cancer at some of his music events. I attended the Madness and Soul2Soul concert at Windsor Racecourse, while Dr Nicola Annels and her team represented us at Boogieland in Walton on Thames. One thing that stood out to me at these events was the lack of awareness of prostate cancer, I was shaken to learn how few men understand the risks, so these events are critical in raising awareness as well as funds. Guildford Lions have once again turned up trumps, donating the proceeds of their annual Firework Fiesta to the Prostate Project, we thank them and we will be writing about the event and their work in our next e-bulletin. And finally, our wonderful supporter, the music legend Paul Jones is once again hosting two nights with his fabulous ‘friends’ in January 2023 at G Live, with funds raised going to the Prostate Project. The 2022 concerts raised more than £60,000 over the two nights thanks to Paul and friends like Van Morrison and Kiki Dee….that’s life changing money, as Brucie used to say! Wow, that’s a lot of thankyous and I don’t think I even scratched the surface, so here are a few photos of our supporters in action.
Spotlight on Research
Zoe Maylin, PhD student
responsive tumours” has shown that Oncolytic (‘cancer killing’) Viruses can be used to increase the infiltration of T cells into prostate tumours, therefore making them more responsive to immunotherapy. This successful finding means that we are now one step closer to developing better more effective immunotherapy treatments for men with prostate cancer. This project is almost at completion and will be written up for publication in the new-year. In addition Dr Nicola Annels has established new collaborations with clinicians at both the Bristol Urological Institute and the Institute of Cancer Research to set up a project investigating the reason why black men have much poorer outcomes from prostate cancer compared to other men, and to analyse the Influence that microbiomes may be playing on this racial disparity. Research involving the novel cancer agent, HTL001, which acts by disrupting a critical interaction of two proteins needed for cancer cell survival, is progressing well as a focal therapy for early prostate cancer and we hope a trial of HTL001 will commence in 2023 involving patients at the Royal Surrey County Hospital. As ever, your support is making much of this research possible, you are saving and prolonging lives through your generosity. We are proud and excited by the great strides that our scientists are making and as I mentioned earlier, an entire section of our new website will be dedicated to research.
The ‘Man Van’ might be grabbing all the headlines but with all the great news and hoopla surrounding the fundraising effort for the Mobile Testing Unit, we have not taken our eye off the ball when it comes to research. Far from it, in fact I would suggest that 2022 has been the most important and successful year for scientific research at the University of Surrey in the history of the Prostate Project. Of course, the nature of scientific research can be rather tricky to ‘translate’ into language that laymen like myself can readily grasp, for this reason I have decided to keep this section down to headlines and broad stroke explanations. However, we will be devoting an entire section of the new website to research, a space which will give us more room to cover the scientific detail. Chris Smith is a PhD student, fully funded by the Prostate Project via our friends at Univar. Chris has been the very first person to investigate the immune microenvironment of Neuroendocrine Prostate Cancer (NEPC), a form of advanced prostate cancer. Remarkably, he has discovered a novel NEPC gene signature which could be used for initial screening via a blood test, for the detection of NEPC. This gene signature is currently being patented, and as only 30% of men with advanced prostate cancer survive more than 5 years, this really is a wonderfully exciting development. The Prostate Cancer UK funded project, “Using a cancer- killing virus to transform prostate cancers into immunotherapy
44% of British people said they’re willing to receive fewer Christmas presents and instead see the money go to a good cause.
info@prostate-project.org.uk
A quick word about costs
Our new animation, with a voice over by PP Patron Les Spaine is available to view on our website, it is aimed at black men, a group twice as likely to develop prostate cancer. The Vectra Polaris was purchased by the Prostate Project, it is a substantial piece of technology that came with a rather hefty price-tag in the region of £270,000. The Vectra is an Automated Quantitative Pathology Imaging System that can quickly detect and measure up to 9 overlapping biomarkers within a single tissue section. This state of the art technology provides in-depth analysis of interactions between immune and cancerous cells, something that was previously impossible and it was worth every single penny! There is a line in the film Jurassic Park, a scientist shouts at a young child, telling him to put a piece of equipment down saying ‘it looks heavy, and heavy means expensive’. I’m not a huge fan of the film (the last in the series was awful) but I can sort of see what the scientist means, but in the world of real science, it’s not just the heavy stuff that is expensive.
Less spectacular, is the reagents pen, shown here in the hands of Sunny, the technician that runs the Vectra Polaris. This incredible device provides a thin film-like green-tinged hydrophobic barrier when a circle is drawn around a specimen on a slide and it costs £75.00. And when we are looking at the ‘Man Van’, just about every piece of equipment has to be robust enough for work in the field, everything from laptops and testing equipment to chairs and tables…not forgetting the loo! Heavy might always mean expensive in science fiction, but in real science, sometimes the light things cost a bob or two as well.
A Young Persons Guide to Prostate Cancer The inspiration for this idea came from a newly graduated history student called Patrick that was doing some admin work for us earlier in the year. It is never too early to start raising awareness of prostate cancer, particularly regarding the urban myths surrounding the testing process. It is also important to remember that prostate cancer affects entire families, and that children & grandchildren may also be looking for advice and reassurance about the illness that their loved ones are going through. We will be producing a brief glossary of medical terms together with access to resources aimed at families for inclusion on our new website. If you have any ideas, or if there is anything that you think we should include, please let us know.
Life with the Lions I know that only those of a certain ‘vintage’ will appreciate the reference to a 1950s wireless programme, albeit spelled a little differently, but I will take any opportunity to remember Ben Lyons and Bebe Daniels. As you will have read elsewhere in this newsletter, our great friends at Guildford Lions chose the Prostate Project as one of the charities to benefit from the Guildford Firework Fiesta, an event that will raise substantial funds for us. But I wanted to highlight the work that the Lions undertake on behalf of the local community, recent initiatives have included an appeal for used laptops and computers, that once ‘upgraded’ were distributed to families and individuals with little or no funds to buy their own. This one simple idea provided equipment vital for children to use for their homework, a great example of the community working together to help the most vulnerable in our society. The Lions also organise collections for food-banks and support dozens of charities with fundraising events.
Quite simply, the Lions ‘get things done’.
If you would like to learn more about the Lions, or fancy helping out please check out their website, there is no minimum commitment to help and you will meet lots of like-minded, decent men and women, people committed to delivering real results, often unheralded but always effective.
Addressing an important issue
One in 8 men will get prostate cancer, an alarming fact in itself but even more horrifying is the fact that 1 in 4 black men will get prostate cancer. We are of course making progress in researching exactly why this is the case, with the teams at the University of Surrey and the Royal Surrey Hospital edging closer and closer to definitive results. In the meantime, it is vital that we encourage as many black men as possible to get a PSA Test from the age of 45, and that’s why we have produced an animation aimed at dispelling myths about the testing process and hammering home the ‘Get Tested’ message. The animation is voiced by our patron Les Spaine, and the content is really hard-hitting, with Les telling his story and talking directly to black men. Our previous animation, produced with support from our sponsors K2 Consultancy has proven to be really effective in persuading men to get tested, and we hope that the new film will be even more popular.
You can see the finished animation on our website.
What do you think of our new look? You may have noticed that this newsletter is larger than usual, that’s because we have so much great news to share and we appreciate that a lot of people prefer a ‘proper’ version rather than our emails. If you would like to receive emails as well (one a month, and we never pester!), please let us know. I should also say that that we are helped with print costs by our wonderful suppliers and it costs no more to post an 8 page version than the traditional 4 pager.
FOLLOW US ON SOCIAL MEDIA @_ProstateProjec The Prostate Project theprostateprojectguildford theprostateproject
Support Group
A part of what we do also involves the rather intangible, certainly unmeasurable work that goes on almost unnoticed. Whether it’s answering questions, giving access to resources, or simply taking the time to pick up the telephone for a chat with somebody going through treatment. For 8 years our Support Group has been led by the magnificent Maggie Swaden, ably assisted by husband Reg (also magnificent by the way!). However, all great things must come to an end and Maggie will be stepping down at the end of the year. In thanking them and their committee for all their hard work, I would like to flag up the fact that we will be further developing the reach of the Support Group. We are holding a steering meeting at the Stokes Centre in December, the purpose of which is to discuss the needs of the group and how we can help deliver it…as well as the small matter of ‘replacing’ Maggie, wish us luck with that one! If you would be interested in learning more about the group, and how you might become involved, please email, call or write to us, you will find all our contact details on the back page of this newsletter. I cannot thank Maggie and the committee enough for all their hard work, quite simply they make people’s lives better.
The Prostate Project is a charity close to my heart, recently it was my great pleasure to record one or two simple messages of support and thanks to the extraordinary NHS staff that work so hard, not just at the Royal Surrey, but across the county and beyond. I also recorded a message to wives, mums, aunties, daughters and sisters, in fact to all women that have men in their lives, because it often falls to us to cajole our menfolk into action, especially when it comes to medical matters. Please, if you do nothing else after reading this message, could you ask them to visit their GP to talk about prostate cancer, the test to highlight any problems is not what it used to be, these days it is just a very simple blood sample, taken from the arm…so don’t listen to any excuses, music hall jokes, or day I say it ‘old-wives tales’. A message from Felicity Kendal, Patron
The Prostate Project, Stokes Centre for Urology, Royal Surrey County Hospital, Egerton Road, Guildford GU2 7XX
Tell them that I said if they want a Good Life, Get Tested!
Lots of love, Felicity
info@prostate-project.org.uk www.prostate-project.org.uk Tel: 01483 406870 Registered Charity No. 1078523
Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6 Page 7 Page 8Made with FlippingBook Digital Publishing Software