On Saturday 21^st February we continued with our work to raise awareness of prostate cancer amongst black men in Croydon by organising an Understanding Prostate Cancer session at the Pneuma Christian Centre.

Like our previous sessions at Trinity Baptist Church and Croydon Tabernacle this was a collaboration between The Lake Foundation, Prostate Cancer UK and Eunice Adu-Appiah as part of our drive to reach as many black men as possible with the key messages about prostate cancer and prostate conditions.

Our prostate cancer awareness session formed part of the Pneuma Christian Centre’s  Men’s Week Conference with the theme being: Empowerment for a Healthy Life based on the bible scripture Isaiah 40:28-3.1

The workshop began with a welcome and introduction by Abi Begho of The Lake Foundation followed by an excellent, informative presentation by Georgina Graham from Prostate Cancer UK.  Georgina’s presentation covered what every man should know about prostate cancer and prostate conditions. She explained the three main prostate conditions that affect men, which are an enlarged prostate, prostatitis and prostate cancer and that all of these conditions have similar symptoms such as:

It was stressed that if men experience any of these symptoms they shouldn’t panic as it could be due prostatitis or enlarged prostate, but they must visit their doctor to rule out prostate cancer.

Georgina also covered the risk factors for prostate cancer which are: age (prostate cancer is more common in men who are over the age of 50); ethnicity (black men are twice as likely as white men to develop prostate cancer); and family history (men with father or a brother with prostate cancer are 2.5 times more likely to develop prostate cancer compared to men who don’t have a family history).

Georgina finished off her presentation by letting attendees know that they have the right to have a PSA test if they are 50 or over and that it is particularly important for black men to be more vigilant and visit their GP if they have any concerns whatsoever.

Georgina’s presentation was followed by a Q&A where we discussed prostate cancer treatments, the digital rectal examination,  how often the PSA test should be conducted and what causes prostate cancer.

After a quick refreshment break we heard from Eunice Adu-Appiah who spoke about exercise, diet and prostate cancer prevention.

Eunice explained that several research studies have shown that men who regularly exercise were at a lower risk of developing prostate cancer and hence men can take some control over their health and reduce their risk of developing prostate cancer and other diseases by simply being more active. We learnt that regular exercise means taking part in 150 minutes of exercise a week and that this should be both cardiovascular and muscle strengthening exercises. Eunice explained that whilst 150 minutes of exercise may sound like a lot this can easily be achieved by breaking these up into 10-15 minute slots throughout the day. For example we could do a few lunges and squats in the morning whilst brushing our teeth and preparing breakfast, then we could walk part of the way to work, take the stairs instead of the lift and go for a walk at lunch time. Before you know it we would have easily met the minimum requirement of 150 minutes of exercise per week.

Eunice then spoke about diet recommending that we avoid saturated fat, trans fat and red meat. Eunice ended by explaining that we don’t have to make drastic changes but changes to our lifestyle should be gradual with the ultimate goal being to adopt a healthy lifestyle where we are active, we eat a well-balanced diet and we factor in some time for relaxation too.

This was a really useful event with a lively, friendly and attentive audience. We’d like to say a big thank you to everyone who attended, to Georgina Graham and Eunice Adu-Appiah for delivering really informative presentations and to Deacon Dele Ogunlaru and the leadership of the Pneuma Christian Centre for inviting us to host this session.

You can listen to an excerpt from Georgina’s presentation below.

On Wednesday we were back at Christ Church Methodist for another fun AfroFit session. We might have been low on numbers but we were high on energy and motivation being joined by a lovely 15 year old who kept us on our toes!

We started the session once again with a African style warm up and then moved on to circuits where we had to take part in a selection of intense exercises for 30 seconds each. These included lunges, squats, ab wheel rolls outs (double ouch!), plank, push ups and skipping. After doing two rounds of these we were well and truly tired and were so glad to move on to our cool down and relaxation – whoopee!

This was another great session by Eunice, our instructor, who is so upbeat and  really keeps us motivated.

We’ll be back next Wednesday at 7pm. Please do join us. We’d love to see you. For more information and to book a place please email us

On Saturday 7^th February, we attended an excellent and very moving book talk and reading by the author of Let’s Talk About Love (and pain). This was a very honest conversation with an extremely talented and fearless writer which really got us thinking about the effectiveness of writing as therapy.

Author, KLove, has written two books of poetry – Let’s Talk About Love (and pain) and Let’s Talk About Love (and pain 2). These are two books inspired by the author’s childhood challenges, battles with eating disorders and the difficulties of managing complex relationships. KLove describes not having an outlet to express her feelings and being quite insular and introverted meaning that she bottled every emotion and feeling up. Then she discovered writing. KLove described writing as her therapy, an excellent opportunity to explore her feelings without judgement and to personally address her past, present and future in a way that worked for her. Mainstream counselling proved to be unhelpful, but writing seemed to be the liberating, healing therapy that she needed.

This really got us thinking about writing as a way to heal our community. From our experience the African Caribbean community shies away from mainstream therapy which usually involves talk therapy and for more serious conditions drug treatment. We know that there are many people who are going through very difficult life challenges on their own.  Our culture has conditioned us to almost ignore our problems and just soldier on, be tough and keep going. This means many people go through life with unresolved issues and  not dealing with these issues is a problem that can have serious consequences on our mental health.

It’s important for the healing process to address the events that affect our emotions and not ignore them. This is particularly important when we encounter death, serious illnesses, heartbreak, abuse, job loss, etc. Dealing constructively with each problem we face strengthens us, heals us and teaches us. It releases us from the negativity and speeds up the healing process.  Using writing to delve into some of the emotions we are experiencing can be an effective form of therapy helping us analyse a situation and come to terms with it.

Dr Adrian Furnham a professor of psychology at University College London has said the following about writing as therapy:

“Over the past few decades the therapeutic power of writing has been discovered.  The task can require serious, introspection: an attempt to make sense of the past. To examine it from various angles rather than simply try to shift blame onto others. This is much more than simply trying to write pretty sentences. It is about singling out experiences, events and people that contributed to one’s life. Seeing cause and effect, understanding psychological processes can significantly increase self-understanding. Suddenly things become apparent: patterns observed, explanations obvious. Writing is also often redemptive. And it helps because nearly always it involves some commitment to change. Clearly writing does not work for all. But it’s amazingly cheap and effective”

The Mental Health Foundation has found that in the UK  black and minority groups are more likely to be diagnosed with a mental health condition; are more likely to experience a poor outcome following mainstream treatment; and sadly are more likely to disengage from mainstream mental health services, leading to social exclusion and a deterioration in their mental health.  With this in mind we need to find therapies that are effective for our community and writing therapy may be a good option that allows us to deal with our emotions before they deteriorate.

An article, Emotional and physical health benefits of expressive writing  written by Karen Baikie and Kay Wilhelm states that:

“Writing about traumatic, stressful or emotional events has been found to result in improvements in both physical and psychological health.  In the expressive writing paradigm, participants are asked to write about such events for 15–20 minutes on 3–5 occasions. Those who do so generally have significantly better physical and psychological outcomes compared with those who write about neutral topics.”

The authors describe some of the theories as to why writing as therapy is effective: it is a  process of emotional catharsis or venting of negative emotions; it allows people to acknowledge emotions that they are actively suppressing. Suppressing emotions requires effort and acknowledging these emotions reduces the physiological work of suppressing emotions and gradually lowers the overall stress of the body; writing allows a coherent narrative of an event to be developed. This means that over time people can logically process an event by organising and structuring the memory, how they feel about it and learn how to manage their feelings; and repeated exposure to the negative emotional experience, through writing, may slowly cause those negative emotions to diminish.

Writing can be a powerful form of therapy and is worth exploring if you need an outlet for the emotions that you may be experiencing either from the day-to-day challenges of life or more serious traumatic experiences.  Try it and please do let us know what you think.

And, to find out more about KLove’s books you can visit Amazon

On Wednesday, we were back at Christ Church Methodist for another fun session of AfroFit. AfroFit is led by Eunice Adu-Appiah a health promotion professional with ten years of nursing experience. Eunice is extremely knowledgeable with years of experience in fitness training having been an athlete herself (sprinter) in university. She’s absolutely fantastic, explains everything and is really friendly and approachable.

Wednesday’s class was really fun with a slight variation to the previous week’s session. After our funky warm-up and stretch we did a selection of circuit training exercises to improve our mobility and strength. These exercises included plank, lunges across the room, spider lunges across the room and ab wheel roll outs. Once complete it was on to floor work and then our favourite part, cool down and relaxation – yay!

This was another great class by Eunice. The circuit training made it very challenging but with the great music and Eunice’s passion we were motivated to keep going.

We’ll be back at Christ Church Methodist next Wed at 7pm. Please do join us in our drive to get our community fit and healthy.

For more information and directions click here.

Today’s blog post comes from Orvel Douglas a Nutrition and Diet Specialist at Body Sculpt of New York. This post follows Orvel’s previous post, A Plant-Based Diet Will Give You Optimum Health.

Mr Douglas is a Certified Nutrition and Diet Specialist in the United States where he has worked as an independent nutrition consultant for various organizations and companies. He has provided nutrition counseling and workshops for the following organizations: Medgar Evers College Empowering Youth to Excel and Succeed Project (“EYES”); United Federation of Teachers; DC 37 and 1199 SEIU.  Mr. Douglas is currently providing nutrition workshops for the Office of Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Services (OASAS) for their Access to Recovery Program (ATR) in Brooklyn, New York.  Mr. Douglas is also the Lead Nutritionist for Body Sculpt of New York’s Six Weeks to Fitness programs.

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In last month’s blog I encouraged everyone to think about adopting a plant-based diet and highlighted some of the benefits of such a diet.  Many studies have shown that animal proteins are causing many preventable diseases. What I have found is that when a person removes all animal protein from their diet many ailments tend to disappear.  The Physicians Committee For Responsible Medicine have been doing a lot of work in this area with the sole purpose of refocusing our efforts on prevention over pills. In this blog I wanted to take the time to summarize some of their work on identifying some of the dangers of a diet high in meat.

Meat-Eating is a Risk Factor for Developing Diabetes

February 21, 2014- Doctors should consider meat-eating to be a risk factor for developing type 2 diabetes, according to an article published in the journal Nutrients. Researchers from the Physicians Committee evaluated studies that examined different levels and types of meat consumption and the risk for developing diabetes. Meat-eaters had significantly higher risk of developing diabetes, compared with people who avoided meat. Meat’s effect on diabetes risk appears to be due to its content of saturated fat and haeme iron, among other factors. The authors recommend that consumption of meat products should be part of any screening for a patient’s risk for diabetes, alongside other established risk factors.

Animal Protein Linked to Early Death

March 4, 2014 – A diet high in animal protein leads to an earlier death, compared to a diet where less is consumed, according to a study analyzing data from 6,381 American adults aged 50 and older. Participants who ate the most animal protein had a 5-fold increase risk of death related to diabetes. Those younger than 65 who ate the most animal protein had a 74 percent increase risk for death from any cause and a 4-fold increase in death related to cancer, during a follow-up of 18 years. Risks for death were diminished or absent when protein sources were plant-derived.

Cholesterol Levels Lower in Vegans

February 10, 2014 – Those who consume vegan diets have better cholesterol levels than people who eat meat, fish, dairy, and/or egg products, according to a study published this month in the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition. Researchers examined data and blood samples from 1,694 participants from the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition-Oxford (EPIC) study. Participants were categorized as meat-eaters, fish-eaters, vegetarians, and vegans. Those who ate a vegan diet consumed the most fiber, the least total fat and saturated fat, and had the healthiest body weight and cholesterol levels, of all the diet groups.A previous analysisfrom the EPIC study found that vegan and vegetarian groups had a 32 percent lower risk of hospitalization or death from heart disease.

The Physicians Committee For Responsible Medicine’s Stance on Meat

PCRM promotes a vegetarian or vegan diet, together with aerobic and weight-bearing exercises and exposure to sufficient sunlight for vitamin D production. It writes that vegetarian diets are low in saturated fat, high in dietary fiber, contain phytochemicals that PCRM argues help prevent cancer, and contain no cholesterol. Its website cites several studies that it says show that vegetarians are less likely than meat eaters to develop cancer. It argues that a vegetarian diet can help prevent heart disease, lower blood pressure, can prevent and may reverse diabetes, and that it may improve the symptoms of a number of other conditions.^[6] PCRM runs the Cancer Project, which suggests a vegan diet will help with cancer prevention, and that offers nutritional assistance to cancer patients.^[7]

PCRM argues for the health benefits of avoiding dairy products—Barnard has called cheese “dairy crack”^[8]—and campaigns for vegetarian meals in schools.^[9] It also runs a website that collects reports of adverse health effects experienced by people on the Atkins diet. The New York Times writes that it was PCRM who in 2004 passed Dr Robert Atkins‘s medical report to the Wall Street Journal. The report, obtained by Dr. Richard Fleming of the Fleming Heart and Health Institute, showed that Atkins himself had experienced heart attack, congestive heart failure, and weight problems. Atkins supporters countered that there was no reason to think that his heart problem (cardiomyopathy) was diet related, and that his weight at death was higher due to fluids pumped into him in the hospital.^[10]

The organization’s founder, Neal Barnard, M.D., has published dozens of peer-reviewed papers on nutrition in journals such asThe American Journal of Cardiology, The Lancet Oncology, and the Journal of the American Dietetic Association.^[11] Naturewrote in 2006 that PCRM had become “an endless source of vexation for federal nutrition-policymakers,” but that Barnard’s position had some support within the medical community. William Roberts, a PCRM adviser, executive director of the Baylor Cardiovascular Institute, and editor of the American Journal of Cardiology said of Barnard. “He’s a superb man. Anybody who devotes their life like he has done to getting us all on the right dietary track, I admire.”

There is mounting evidence that turning awary from a meat-based diet is the best option for us and will significantly improve our health and wellbeing. We encourage everyone to take a look at their diet and cut out meat where they can, your health depends on it.

Last night was the second session of our new aerobics class, AfroFit, which aims to give attendees a great workout whilst having a whole lot of fun.  The class is inspired by the Afro beats movement and thus the workout is choreographed to toe tapping Afro beats music.  It’s not all about fun though as there is some pain involved, but like our instructor says “no pain, no gain!”

AfroFit is led by Eunice Adu-Appiah a health promotion professional with ten years of nursing experience. Eunice is extremely knowledgeable with years of experience in fitness training having been an athlete herself (sprinter) in university. She’s absolutely fantastic, explains everything and has developed a really fun class that will appeal to everyone.

In last night’s session we worked every part of our body,  but it was so much fun that it really didn’t feel like a workout (well, some of it did, especially the floor work, ouch!). We started with a light warm up and then moved on to cardio which included some great African dance moves . This was followed by some floor work and then we finished with a cool down with some relaxation – ahh lovely.

This was a great session and is part of our drive to get our community fit and active. Please do join us next week at 7pm at Christ Church Methodist in Croydon. We’d love to see you.

For more information and directions click here.

In October, we launched our Fibroids Ask the Expert, a resource that aims to provide anyone with a question or concern about fibroids with accurate reliable information from an expert in the field. Since its launch, we have received a number of really interesting questions which our experts have been delighted to answer. We thought it would be useful to share some of the questions and the answers with you.  So, this week’s blog is a fibroids Q&A.

Question: “How much are fibroids are likely to shrink after menopause?”

Answer:  “Fibroids may shrink after menopause, but not always.  There have been reports of fibroids shrinking by 50% after menopause and that symptoms improve or disappear completely after menopause.  This isn’t an instant process though and our understanding is that if shrinkage occurs it is usually gradual.”

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Question: “My sister was diagnosed with fibroids one being 11cm, is that large?”

Answer: “A fibroid of 11cm is on the large side. Fibroids can vary in size from as small as a coin (about 2cm) to as large as a watermelon (about 19cm).”

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Question: “Would Doctors consider the use of proteolytic enzymes as a part of the fibroid shrinking protocol?”

Answer:  “Proteolytic enzymes have the potential to “shrink” fibroids, however, to answer your question, a doctor’s protocol is relative to his/her academic training.  If the physician has been trained in biomedical sciences, he/she are less likely to promote this approach, unless perhaps to assist in decreasing the fibroid size prior to surgical intervention.  Nonetheless, there have been no major studies conducted that support a significant impact between proteolytic enzymes and fibroid shrinkage.  This is just another reason medical doctors may be less likely to support this protocol.  Naturopathic or homoeopathic doctors would be more inclined to consider proteolytic enzymes in addition to other forms of treatment to address fibroids, however, this decision needs to be made in consultation with your selected physician.”

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Those are just a selection of some of the questions we have received. If you have a question about fibroids, no matter what, please do submit it  here or email us

This week’s guest blog post comes from Sydney Ross Singer, Medical Anthropologist and Director of the Institute for the Study of Culturogenic Disease. Sydney discusses the recent media headlines that reported that two-thirds of cancers are a result of “bad luck”.

When a single medical study is trumpeted around the world as “truth”, you can be sure you are dealing with marketing and not medicine.

A recent study announcing that two-thirds of all cancers are just a matter of “bad luck” has made its marketing rounds, with the conclusion that all we can do to deal with our rogue mutated cells is to go to the doctor for early detection and treatment. (Variation in cancer risk among tissues can be explained by the number of stem cell divisions, Science 2 January 2015: Vol. 347 no. 6217 pp. 78-81).

Of course, this is good for the cancer detection and treatment industry. If cancer is out of our control, unrelated to lifestyle and genetics but merely a chance event, then you need repeated and thorough cancer screening throughout your life.

You can see why this one study has been embraced by media worldwide. Media, after all, is about selling products and services, just as the Internet is paid for by ads. Here they are selling cancer services.

However, if you step back from the hype, you can see a clear flaw in the conclusion of this study.

Essentially, the study asserts that tissues with higher rates of stem cell activity have higher rates of random mutations. Stem cells are the progenitor cells of the tissues. Tissues that have higher rates of turnover than other tissues have more frequent stem cell divisions which increase the likelihood of more cellular reproduction errors.

Some of these errors can cause the cells to reproduce excessively, resulting in tumour development and cancer. This sounds reasonable on the surface. However, it ignores part of the equation.

The body has a mechanism responsible for managing cellular mutations and killing these rogue cells. That part is the immune system.

Cancer cells are not normal, healthy cells, and the immune system recognizes these cells as defective and attacks and destroys them. This happens all the time, except when there is some immune system problem that allows these defective cells to continue reproducing. At that point, the mutated cells reproduce and grow, resulting in cancer.

This means that random mutations may cause a stem cell to go rogue. But a poorly responding defense system allows that rogue cell to develop further into cancer.

If we had no immune system mechanism for fighting mutated cells, then you would expect that there would be a direct correlation between stem cell reproductive rates, mutation rates, and the ultimate development of cancers.

However, if we had a perfectly operating and robust immune defence system, where every mutated cell was destroyed, you would expect that mutated stem cells would be killed before they could develop into cancers. There would then be no correlation between stem cell division rates and cancer incidence in those tissues. In fact, there would be no cancer at all.

In other words, stem cell random mutations don’t cause cancer. Immune system dysfunction causes cancer.

While the study did not look at breast tissue, we can see this role of the immune system in the development of breast cancer. It has to do with impairment of a central component of the immune system, called the lymphatic system.

The immune system consists of cells which fight disease and infection, the organs which produce and activate these fighting cells, and a lymphatic system through which these cells travel throughout the tissues. A problem with any aspect of the immune system can result in a reduced resistance against disease, including cancer.

When it comes to breast cancer, the immune system is impaired by constriction of the lymphatic system caused by the cultural habit of wearing tight bras for long periods of time every day. The lymphatic system consists of extremely thin tubules which passively drain lymph from tissues. These are easily compressed by the pressure of a bra.

Compression from the bra is apparent by the red marks and indentations in the skin. This pressure result is chronic fluid accumulation in the breasts, as the lymph fluid that bathes the cells is prevented from properly flushing out of the breast. This increases the toxin load in the tissue, reduces oxygen availability, impairs tissue repair and maintenance, and increases stem cell mutation rates.

Constriction of the breasts also reduces the ability of immune cells to fight infections and cancers within the tissue. White blood cells cannot function properly in stagnant, low oxygenated, congested, and toxic tissue.

Numerous studies have confirmed the link between breast cancer and wearing bras. In fact, it has been shown that bra-free women have about the same incidence of breast cancer as men, and the longer and tighter the bra is worn the higher the incidence rises, increasing over 100 times for 24/7 bra users compared to bra-free women. (Seehttp://www.killerculture.com/breast-cancer-is-preventable/)

Unfortunately, this information does not create a market for products and services. Indeed, it challenges the multi-billion dollar lingerie industry, as well as the cancer detection and treatment industry.

In a world where media exists to sell products and services, information that challenges the sales of products or services is ignored. Hence, news about the bra-cancer link has been suppressed and censored for the past 20 years. If the goal of media was to improve the human condition, the bra-cancer link would have been extensively publicized long ago.

But one study on the bra-cancer link was recently publicized worldwide, with similar fanfare as the “bad luck” cancer study. Not surprisingly, the study concluded there was no link. While the study admitted it was flawed by not including bra-free women, along with other problems, it was heralded as the final word on the issue. The conclusion, of course, was the typical sales pitch promoting early detection and treatment.

Of course, early detection and treatment of cancer mean you still get cancer. But when prevention is considered naive and futile, and cancers are considered just “bad luck”, there is nothing you can do but make an appointment for medical tests to see if you have cancer, and then treat it once you do.

Most cancers are not “bad luck”. They are bad immunity. If we are to discover the causes of various cancers, we must look at the reasons why the immune system is being compromised, allowing mutated cells to develop into cancer.

Of course, if any of these discoveries do not result in increased sales of a product or service, you will not hear about them. What you will hear about is any study, even if it is flawed, that concludes that you are helpless to prevent disease and that all you can do is rush to the doctor for early detection and treatment.

It’s not about health. It’s about money. That’s not bad luck, just bad medicine.

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The Lake Foundation would like to thank Sydney Ross Singer for his guest blog piece which was first published on 7th January here. If you have any questions or comments please do leave them below in the comments section. 

In the middle of last year, we started our search for office space and soon found what appeared to be the perfect opportunity – free office space for charities with no bills to pay.  We thought: “Yay! All our prayers have been answered.”  But sadly, after a very frustrating and disappointing process, this fell through and we were back to square one.

Just when we had given up all hope and the year was coming to an end we discovered 3Space.

3Space is an innovative, award-winning charity that was founded in 2010 to unlock the value of empty commercial properties. They work in partnership with property holders to make empty commercial space available free of charge for community use. They create a shared space that builds local networks and provides the infrastructure for innovation by social entrepreneurs and not-for-profit organisations.

They have repurposed properties across the UK giving start-ups and charities the opportunity to access free office space and meeting room facilities,  ensuring that these types of organisations have a great start where the stress and challenges of finding funding to cover the costs of rent,  utility bills and overheads are eliminated.

We’re based in Croydon and after we come across 3Space we were delighted to learn that they were offering workspace right in the centre of Croydon.  The process of registering was really straightforward and within two weeks we had viewed the workspace, registered and were ready to go. Furthermore, the staff at 3Space were great. Harry, Head of Operations and Lucinda, Project Manager, were extremely warm, welcoming and helpful.

The workspace 3Space has to offer in Croydon is lovely. As part of the Cabinet Office’s Space for Growth, it is based on the 5^th floor of Southern House, it has great views of Croydon and is very spacious. It is home to a number of start-up companies and not-for-profit organisations making it a great environment to work in and meet people with similar interests.

In addition to the office space, there is also access to meeting and conference rooms making it ideal for external meetings and hosting small seminars.

We’ve been at 3Space for about a month now and love it. It’s a great place to work; it’s an environment that motivates us and gets the creative juices flowing.

From this experience of securing office space, I have definitely learnt a lot.  I can now vouch for the saying that goes: “when one door closes a bigger and better door will open”. That’s what has happened to us. All I can say is: if you are going through a hard time with your business or project, hang in there, be patient and know that it’s only temporary. There is always light at the end of the tunnel.

Thank you 3Space!

For more information about 3Space please visit their website.

Today, we had a great time raising awareness of prostate cancer at our Understanding Prostate Cancer seminar at Trinity Baptist Church.

This event was a collaboration between The Lake Foundation, Trinity Baptist Church and Prostate Cancer UK and was organised as part of Prostate Cancer UK’s engagement and empowerment pilot which aims to understand the best methods of reaching the black community with the key messages about prostate cancer.

Understanding Prostate Cancer formed part of TBC’s Men’s Fellowship’s monthly breakfast meeting giving us the perfect forum to discuss prostate cancer and raise awareness.

After a lovely breakfast prepared by the Women’s Ministry (thank you!), the seminar began with a welcome and introduction by Abi Begho from The Lake Foundation. This was followed by an excellent presentation by Georgina Graham, a volunteer from Prostate Cancer UK.

From Georgina’s presentation, attendees learnt that prostate cancer is the most common cancer affecting men in the UK with 43,000 cases diagnosed every year and 1 in 8 men expected to develop prostate cancer. We also covered the three main prostate conditions that affect men – an enlarged prostate, prostatitis and prostate cancer. It was stressed that an enlarged prostate and prostatitis are not linked to prostate cancer and do not increase a person’s risk of developing prostate cancer. We then moved on to what symptoms men should look out for and these included:

• Needing to pee more often, especially at night
• Difficulty starting to pee
• Straining or taking a long time to finish peeing
• A weak flow
• A feeling that your bladder has not emptied properly
• Needing to rush to the toilet
• Dribbling urine