Trevor Phillips
Trevor's running the London Marathon
Fundraising for PROSTATE CANCER UK
Story
Dear Givers (or remaining potential Donors),
Your suffering is nearly over, as this is the last of these emails you’ll receive!
Happily, I completed the 26.2 miles yesterday, despite the grumbling from my knees that no matter how enthusiastic my prostate might have been about the whole thing, nobody had asked them if they thought it was a good idea, and they were only there under sufferance……For those who are interested in that kind of thing, my race day statistics are below.
But more importantly, those of you who donated helped our team to nearly double our target, and lifted my own total to over 250% of my original aim. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
For those who didn’t get round to it, this page will still be up for a while, so if you can, there’s still the opportunity to add to the total.
A special thank you to my friend Tom Shropshire for getting me into this in the first place, and to the team at Prostate Cancer UK who supported us so ably. And once again, thank you to all of you who gave; to those who passed on this email; and to family and friends who came out to wave signs and keep me going!
Trevor
1 Result | unofficial results | Surname: Phillips | First Name: Trevor | Runner no: 45785
Place overall Place cat. Name Runner no. Category Half Finish
17636. 12599. T Phillips 45785. 60-64. 02:08:1 04:37:37
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Dear Giver
I’m hauling out my lycra on April 22, not just to give you a good laugh, but to raise funds for Prostate Cancer UK’s “Stronger Knowing More” campaign, by running the London Marathon. This will be my third marathon, and I’m coming out of retirement to join a team of four men, highlighting a single, ghastly fact: one in four black men in the UK will be diagnosed with prostate cancer in their lifetimes, double the risk for all men. My co-runners will be
- Thomas Kagezi, Stronger Knowing More ambassador, diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2016
- DJ Disciple, Community radio station DJ at Vibes FM
- and
- Chris Powell, Manager of Southend United Football Club
Why are we doing this? And why are we making a meal of the fact that the team is black?
Of course it’s personal. Some of my friends will know that my brother-in-law and dear friend for nearly half a century, Maurice Braithwaite, died a few years ago after developing prostate cancer. He left behind a great gap in our family and in our lives. So for me, some of this is about him.
But this isn’t just a memorial run. We want to make a song and dance about it, because the fact is that a wider awareness of the condition will save lives, many thousands of them. The reluctance of men to be tested “down below” has meant that fathers, brothers and sons left us before their time; and let’s face it, this reluctance seems to be a bigger issue for black men than for others. If the phrase “Black Lives Matter” means anything at all, this campaign should be at its forefront.
A third major reason is that it’s time. Recent advances in diagnosis mean that we stand a better chance than our fathers of knowing earlier if we have the condition; and research on remedies suggests that the possibilities of men leading better, healthier lives post-treatment are higher than ever.
Finally, we haven’t really broken through to black men yet. OK, none of us is the Black Panther; we aren't saving Wakanda, and we don't have a mountain of vibranium to give. But the fact that the four of us can all claim the same heritage and that we are ready to put ourselves to some sort of trial will, we hope, persuade many of our brothers to overcome their shyness and take control of their own health.
It comes down to this. The more money we raise, the sooner we can find better, less risky medical treatments. And the more publicity we can generate the more men we can persuade to act sooner rather than later.
I know you probably get a lot of these appeals. I hope you’ll make an old fella happy by supporting this one - I am by far the most senior of the four of our team, so don’t expect me to do anything approaching a respectable time - I’ll let you know how I get on, which should reward you with a comical story by itself. Please give whatever you can; and just as importantly, let everyone you know hear about it.
Trevor
