Some years ago when I was writing my will, I told a surgeon friend who specialises in cancer that I was planning to leave something to breast cancer research.
He informed me, rather brutally, there were other cancers that claimed huge numbers of lives, but were ignored because they weren’t ‘fashionable’.
I should think about leaving money to research into one of these, he added — prostate cancer, for example. He called it the ‘Cinderella cancer’ — ignored, swept under the counter by society.
Statistics confirmed what he said: prostate has now become a bigger killer than breast cancer. And while breast cancer deaths are falling, the toll for prostate cancer victims is continuing to climb
After all, it only affected men. They never went to the doctor and were too embarrassed to talk about it anyway.
Yesterday, official statistics confirmed what he said: prostate has now become a bigger killer than breast cancer. And while breast cancer deaths are falling, the toll for prostate cancer victims is continuing to climb.
As the Mail explained yesterday, a major reason for this is that funding for prostate cancer research has been less than half of that for breast cancer since 2002.
The fact is all the high-profile campaigns seem to be about women’s cancers. Whenever you turn on the radio, women are discussing breast cancer awareness month, or pink ribbons against breast cancer, or cervical cancer awareness week.
And while these campaigns deserve huge support — for, make no mistake, they have saved many, many lives — their success highlights the dire need for better help for men’s cancers.
Research has shown that more men get cancer than women, and that more boys get cancer than girls.
Two decades ago, the Mail’s Dying of Embarrassment campaign did wonders by drawing attention to the ‘taboo’ of prostate cancer and raising £1 million to help tackle it. Other campaigns have helped, too. But these latest figures show there is so much more to be done.
Not a day goes by when we aren’t told how unfairly women are being treated — whether it concerns the Harvey Weinstein scandal or the row over BBC pay.
But here the opposite is the case. Where cancer is concerned, men are considered second-class citizens. And we women should be just as angry about that as the men.
Give pregnant Kate a break
The Duchess of Cambridge’s wardrobe has come under criticism during her tour of Sweden, especially when compared with her glamorous future sister-in-law Meghan Markle, who’s been out and about at home.
Yes, at times Kate has looked like she’s rolled herself inside an oriental carpet, but let’s give her a break.
She’s seven months into her third very difficult pregnancy and who can blame her for looking like she wishes she was at home with the kids in her leggings and Ugg boots?
The third Sex And The City movie may go ahead without toy-boy eating Samantha Jones, played by Kim Cattrall. Sarah Jessica Parker, now 52, who as Carrie Bradshaw slept with just three men during the two decades of the series (Samantha consumed as many in a week), is confident it will be a success without her. Sexless And The City? I’m not so sure.
Helen Mirren, 72, is photographed naked in a pool promoting the charity Give Up Clothes For Good, which encourages people to donate their unwanted clothes to help fund Cancer Research UK.
Given that she’s thrown them off at every opportunity during her five-decade career, I’m surprised she has any clothes left to give.
Location, Location, Location presenter Kirstie Allsopp gives short shrift to young people complaining about not being able to get on the housing ladder, saying they don’t understand about making economies and lowering expectations.
‘When young couples say to me they want to buy a flat but they’re also saving up to go on a trip around the world,’ she says, ‘I am gobsmacked.’
Indeed, when I showed my mother around my first flat she said: ‘That’s lovely darling, where’s the rest of it?’
I’ve long been a fan of Robert Winston, the IVF pioneer, having met him several times.
Yet I was perturbed that this straight-talking professor took to Twitter to ‘train-shame’ a woman who screeched into her mobile phone for an hour on a packed train. Yes, of course, she would have driven all of us mad.
But why didn’t Lord Winston simply ask her — politely — to ‘shut up’. By resorting to social media, he showed his manners were no better than hers.
- After her successful visit to China, the locals nicknamed our PM ‘Auntie May’. Affectionate, yes, but oh for the days our female leader was known as the Iron Lady.
- Manchester mayor Andy Burnham is commendably doing his bit to help the homeless, giving 15 per cent of his £110,000 salary to help rough sleepers. And although I don’t share his politics, I absolutely agree with his comment on the house-building boss who was given a £110 million bonus: ‘It would be great if he put some of that back into helping those with no homes.’
- Former Shadow Home Secretary Ann Widdecombe insisted she had a private bathroom before she agreed to enter the Celebrity Big Brother house. An insider said: ‘Ann’s ultimate nightmare was being seen in any state of undress on TV.’ It would certainly be ours.
More than 400,000 people signed a petition to force Herefordshire Council finally to find a home for a hero who served for 17 years with the SAS and distinguished himself in the Iranian Embassy siege. Bob Curry, 64, has been living in B&Bs paid for by his former regiment. It is a scandal that while one in ten council homes goes to foreigners, veterans in need who fought for our freedoms are left to fend for themselves.
Swimwear model Myleene Klass is celebrating her forthcoming 40th birthday in the buff, promoting her new fitness DVD. ‘I couldn’t be more proud of my body,’ she says. ‘It’s given me two beautiful babies, carried me through good times and tough, and allowed me to be a strong and successful woman.’ But what it’ll never give her is class.