Daughter in walk to raise awareness of prostate cancer

ARESILIENT daughter will join her mother in a charity walk to raise awareness for prostate cancer after the devastating loss of her dad to the disease.

Suzanne Bellingham, 42, will take part in the March for Men this Sunday in the city’s East End for the charity Prostate Cancer UK, after losing her father Billy at just 69 years old to cancer in December 2018.

She will do this with her mum Jane, 72, in solidarity with the thousands of other fathers, sons, brothers and partners currently affected by prostate cancer.

Suzanne, from Wishaw, will join a community of walkers in Tollcross Park to raise money for lifesaving testing and treatment for the cancer, which affects one in eight men in the UK. Currently, it is estimated there are 4664 men in Glasgow alone who are living with prostate cancer.

She said: “It’s a good atmosphere. Everyone is there for the same purpose, to raise awareness and support other families that have been through the same thing and to try to stop future families from going through what we went through.”

She added: “We were all close, a small family but really close. My dad was a relatively young and fit man. He was 69 when he died and had only retired two years prior to getting diagnosed.”

Suzanne describes her dad as a “DIY wizard” that her family relied on. “Anything you needed, you just called upon dad,” she shares.

Marchers will take part in either a fully accessible 2.5km or longer 10km route around the park in honour of loved ones following a twoyear hiatus due to Covid.

The first time Suzanne took part with her mum, sister Michelle Clayton, 44, and nephew Andrew Bellingham, 18, in 2019, she was moved by words of support she received from the community.

She added: “There just needs to be more awareness of the signs and symptoms and early diagnosis is the key.

“There are men that are frightened to go and get checked and think that certain symptoms are just an age thing. And it’s not, it’s important to go and get checked.”

The event’s return coincides with a joint campaign from NHS and Prostate Cancer UK to find more than 14,000 men across Britain who needed treatment yet hadn’t come forward since the start of the pandemic.

Nicola Tallett, a director at Prostate Cancer UK, said: “It’s been a difficult two years, but the support in that time has been unwavering.

“We will all walk side by side and continue to fund more ground-breaking research and work towards a screening programme to catch prostate cancer early and save lives.”

The march has raised £1.9 million since its inception in 2017 and will take place across four UK cities in June.