Beggars can’t be choosers when it comes to prostate cancer





 Every little helps: NEDPSA member Dorrie Warner and one of the many generous donors at the Tesco store on Exmouth's Salterton Road



“It’s a shame you have to beg for money,” was one lady’s comment to me in Exmouth’s Tesco foyer. Yes, standing there in my yellow tabard collecting for NEDPSA isn’t the most exciting activity I’d have chosen. But the weather was rather iffy for gardening and we had to do some shopping anyway. So the two-hour stint with my friend Annie was not especially arduous.

Yes, maybe the Government should be providing all the money that prostate support associations need. But fund-raising is only partly about raising cash; the other part is making people aware of an issue.









Chairman of the Exmouth and Budleigh Salterton branch of NEDPSA David Warner and his wife Dorrie 
In our case the issue is the potentially deadly disease that is prostate cancer. Responsible, so they say, for over 10,000 deaths annually in the UK.  Or in other words, one every hour.

I can’t quite understand why 9,000 of those deaths occur in England. Or why in the USA, with its much bigger population, the mortality rate is only just over 32,000 per annum. But it was clear that our presence struck a chord with many of the people going in and out of the store.

Occasionally someone would suddenly see us with our yellow tabards and prostate cancer literature, stop their shopping trolley without warning and fumble in a purse or a wallet. It caused an unexpected jam, to which they were oblivious. For a few seconds, maybe, we had brought back painful memories of a grandfather, father or husband who had fallen victim to the disease. 







Budleigh blogger Michael Downes and friend Annie meet another generous donor
During our two-hour stint three women told us of their husbands who had died from prostate cancer. One man was awaiting the result of his biopsy. Countless others filled our collecting boxes without telling us their stories.

Almost all thanked us for what we were doing before we acknowledged whatever they had donated.  
Members of the Exmouth and Budleigh Salterton branch of NEDPSA collected a total of £454.22. Grateful thanks to Tesco for allowing branch members to be based at the Exmouth store. I will be interviewed about prostate cancer and men’s health on Exmouth’s community radio station Bay FM on Wednesday 26 June at 12.15 pm.  For more information about NEDPSA (North and East Devon Prostate Support Association) click on http://www.nedpsa.org.uk  


  

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

WW2 100 – 3 July 1941 – ‘Our beloved son’: Private Stanley John Holloway (1914-41) 12th Battalion, Devonshire Regiment

Image
Continued from 11 June 1941 ‘A German platoon fired a salute of honour over the grave’ FLYING OFFICER PETER HAROLD HOWARD PRITCHARD (1921-41)   https://budleighpastandpresent.blogspot.com/2021/11/ww2-75-11-june-1941-german-platoon.html   Image credit: www.FindaGrave.com Stanley’s sad death at the age of 27 stirred various thoughts in me when I first read about it. He is not listed on Budleigh Salterton’s War Memorial, yet his grave is in St Peter’s Burial Ground on Moor Lane. His family were not local, yet he seems to have been killed while engaged in the highly hazardous work of protecting Budleigh against invasion.   The Commonwealth War Graves Commission records him as a member of the 12 th Battalion, Devonshire Regiment with the Service Number was 5627659. According to the same source, his parents were George and M. Holloway, of Hounslow, Middlesex.   Tackling this WW2 project chronologically as I am, it was clear that Stanley had died on the same day as Private Clifto
Read more

People from the Past: 3. Reg Varney (1916-2008)

Image
Reginald Alfred 'Reg' Varney was an English actor, most notable for his role as a cheerful Cockney bus driver in the 1970s TV sitcom On the Buses . For ten years he lived at Dark Lane House on picturesque Dark Lane in Budleigh Salterton, seen above.  Millions of television viewers remember him with affection. He has been described as belonging to the old school of comedians, with his dislike of much contemporary television and his pride in never using swear words to get a laugh. Varney was born on 11 July 1916 in Canning Town, which was then part of Essex but is now part of East London. His father worked in a rubber factory in Silvertown and he was one of five children who grew up in Addington Road, Canning Town. He was educated at the nearby Star Lane Primary School in West Ham and after leaving school at 14, he worked as a messenger boy at the Regent Palace Hotel, pictured above.  
Read more

A home that Hatchard-Smith built: Lavender House

Image
Lavender House, one of no less than 50 houses in Budleigh Salterton designed by Hatchard-Smith   Instantly recognisable with their red and white decoration and their front doors set within brick arches, the houses built by architect William Hatchard-Smith (1887-1987) are still sought after and appreciated by their owners for their elegance and comfort, their sturdy construction and their attention to practical detail. Plans for one of the houses designed by Hatchard-Smith Lavender House, on Moorlands Road , is a four-bedroomed detached family residence built by Hatchard-Smith in the late 1920s when it was originally named Lavenderhay.   Set within what are described as beautifully landscaped gardens of approximately an acre it has recently undergone an extensive refurbishment programme while retaining much of the original charm and character. The stained glass memorial in Budleigh Sa
Read more