Huddersfield Town staff have taken on the Prostate United challenge over the past month to raise funds and awareness of prostate cancer.
Members of Town’s backroom team have walked 3km or 5km, ran 5km or 10km, or cycled 10km or 25km every day during the month of October for the cause
Prostate United was co-founded by Town’s head of performance Ross Burbeary, who alongside former Rotherham United colleague Stephen Gilpin began the challenge back in 2018.
More than 100,000km were clocked from participants in total this time around, while more than £300,000 has been raised this year, with Prostate United continuing to near towards their £1 million fundraising target.
Asked how he was finding the challenge at a recent press conference, Burbeary, who chose to run 10k every day, said: “I probably gave the answer to that question when I walked into this room hobbling, and looking as if I’m struggling a bit.
“I think it’s something where we’ve all become quite well versed now for the seven years that we’ve been doing the challenge, that things do start to hurt and we do get a bit tired, especially working in football where you’re doing considerable hours throughout the course of a week. Trying to find time to go for a 10k run is quite difficult to do, but we also recognise it’s a privilege to do as well.
“It creates some great camaraderie amongst the group, the staff and the players – the players can see that the staff are working hard. You sit around in the changing room afterwards as a group of staff, all looking at each other going ‘you struggling? Yeah me too’, so you put an arm around each other and you drag each other through it, and it creates some great stories and great memories at the same time.”
Michael Duff is one of the club’s staff members that took part in the challenge, with the head coach opting to cycle 15km every day last month.
The Terriers’ boss, who has also completed the challenge during his time in charge at Cheltenham Town and Barnsley, said: “It’s for a brilliant cause, the money that they’ve raised, and the awareness that it’s bringing as well.
“Obviously prostate cancer has got a big affiliation with football, because of the amount of men that it kills. It’s anything that you can do.
“Ross is a real driver for it, because obviously he was part of the original group that set it up, but it’s growing and growing. Grant McCann’s one of my best mates (Doncaster Rovers manager), they’ve got a big group doing the runs, so fair play. Anyone doing the running side of it, I doff my cap to them. It’s great all round.”
The funds raised from the challenge for Prostate Cancer UK are put towards improving prostate cancer research, as well as providing support for those living with the disease.
According to the charity, one in eight men will get prostate cancer, highlighting the importance of the fundraising effort.
“The challenge itself is threefold. One is to raise money for cancer research, another is to create awareness,” Burbeary said.
“We call it the Prostate United family, we have a fantastic community where we ring each other, we talk about prostate cancer. We’ve been invited down to Nottingham University, where professor Nigel Mongan showed us about the groundbreaking research that’s coming out with prostate cancer treatment, and also identification.
“Then thirdly, just making sure that we can try our best to reduce these horrendous statistics around what prostate cancer is, what it looks like, and how to recognise what that can then mean in terms of treatment.
“Prostate Cancer UK have got a risk checker where you can go online, some simple questions – age, heritage in terms of your ethnicity, and if you’ve got any previous within the family as well.
“There’s a lot of work being done behind the scenes, not just to raise money, but also to show camaraderie amongst the group, and to try and take the stigma away from what men are, which is typically ‘I’m alright, I’ll brush it off, it’s not a problem, I’ll just get on with it’.
“We’re trying our best to make sure that men have access to go and speak to the GP, and get the treatment and get a test to see what can happen, if anything does happen around prostate cancer.”
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